Quatre-quarts with Berries and a Lemon Drizzle

What do you do when you have an overload of berries that are threatening to go bad? Right, you bake! Or at least, that’s what I do. I bought blueberries on sale at the supermarket, but they were kind of mushy and disappointing, which made them perfect to put in a cake. Somehow, blueberries completely transform when they bake – both in taste and flavour. I also had a bowl full of fresh red currants from my parents’ garden, so I figured I’d throw some of those in, too.

At first, I didn’t really know what to bake – the first thing that came to mind were muffins, but that seemed kind of boring, since that’s pretty much always my go-to for when I have leftover fruit. Then I remembered this cake I baked years ago – a french cake called a quatre-quarts, only back then I used a whole lot of apples instead of berries. Turns out, a quatre-quarts is pretty much just a pound cake or a sponge. Who’d have thunk!

I also added a lemon drizzle to this cake, because lemon drizzles make everything better. It’s a fact. The cake turned out absolutely scrumptious – definitely a good one to have added to my repertoire! The fresh berries and lemon-y taste make it a perfect summer treat.

You’ll need…

• 3 eggs + 1 extra egg yolk
• the weight of the eggs in salted butter (room temperature)
• the weight of the eggs in sugar
• the weight of the eggs in flour
• 3 g dried yeast (½ a sachet)
• 150 g blueberries
• 50 g red currants
• zest of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar
• springform tin (20-22 cm)
• and an oven, of course! This cake needs to be baked at 160 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1. Weigh out your eggs For this recipe, you need to weigh out your eggs. So, crack three eggs in a bowl on your scales, and add the yolk of a fourth egg. The combined weight of these eggs is the same as the weight you will be using for the sugar, butter and flour.

2. Mix butter and sugar Put the butter and sugar together in a large bowl and mix until they’re pale and fluffy. I used my free stand mixer for this, but you can just as easily use a handheld mixer, and if you don’t mind putting in some extra hard work, just using a spoon or whisk would work too.

3. Add eggs Add the eggs to the batter and mix until it’s all well-combined.

4. Mix together flour and yeast, then add to mixture Mix the dried yeast through the flour, and then add this to the batter. Mix it all together until you’re left with a perfectly mixed batter.

5. Add berries and lemon zest Add the blueberries, red currants and lemon zest to the batter and gently mix them through.

6. Bake! Transfer the batter into a generously buttered springform tin and place it into your preheated oven. Bake the cake for 40 to 50 minutes. Insert a skewer in the middle of the cake to check if it’s done. If the skewer comes out clean, take the cake out of the oven. Does it have batter sticking to it? Bake the cake for a few more minutes. Once it’s done, let it cool inside of its tin on a cooling rack.

7. Prepare drizzle and pour over cake While the cake is cooling down, prepare your drizzle. Take a small bowl and mix the lemon juice and icing sugar together until it’s smooth mixture. Let the cake cool down for about 10 minutes. Then, poke multiple holes (about 15) in the cake with your skewer and then pour over the drizzle. Let the cake cool down a bit before taking it out of its tin.

And that’s it! Enjoy your delicious quatre-quarts with berries and a lemon drizzle!