Learning Objective
You will learn how to make a sourdough cake with a very high diversity score.
Makes: | 1 cake |
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Level: | Absolute beginner |
Created Over: | Mix and bake immediately |
Kind of Bake: | Ambient day – French style – mixed in the morning and baked in the evening |
Diversity Score: | 38 (muesli increases the diversity) |
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This is an easy and delicious Raspberry Sourdough Cake. The beurre noisette adds natural sweetness, and the muesli I use here at the school contains almonds and pistachios. If your muesli doesn’t, feel free to add some. Serve the cake warm with cultured cream, so you can get your probiotics at the same time: both you and your gut microbes are in for a feast.
We used Botanical Blend No. 8 in this Raspberry Sourdough Cake. Most of my Botanical Blend recipes are not yet published online because they are so new. They are however all listed in full in my new book The Sourdough School Sweet Baking: Nourishing the Gut & the Mind which you can order via our shop. The Botanical Blend No. 8 has a Diversity Score of 20! That means it contains 20 different ingredients, so when you bake with it you will be eating 20 different foods plus the other ingredients in the recipe! That's 20 compared to just 1 if you bake this with regular flour! The total diversity score of our Raspberry Sourdough Cake is an impressive 38! That's 38 different foods in every bite! Won't your gut be happy...
Equipment
- Mockmill mill (if milling our Botanical Blend)
- 22cm round cake tin, 4cm deep
- Small saucepan
- Spatula
- Mixing bowl
- Clean tea towel or shower cap
- Skewer
- Wire rack
Tin Size
- 22cm round cake tin (4cm deep) OR 8 x 2 inch round cake pan (USA)
Suggested Starter
White (but any refreshed starter can be used)
Status of Starter
bubbly, lively first-build starter
DDT
23°C (73°F)
Flours
To Ferment Your Dough
For The Dough
- Muesli, for dusting the tin (any fruit and large nuts best removed)
- FOR THE BATTER
- 100g butter, plus extra for greasing
- 140g Botanical Blend No. 8 or wholegrain stoneground flour
- pinch of sea salt
- 100g date syrup
- 2 free-range eggs
- 100g sourdough starter
- FOR THE TOPPING
- 140g fresh raspberries (reserve half for once the cake is cooked) and a sprinkle of muesli
- 10g butter, diced
Baking Time
15–18 minutes
Bake At
170°C/150°C fan/340°F/gas mark 3½
Tutorials
Step | Timings |
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Refresh your starter | Day 1, 8am |
Grease tin and sprinkle with muesli | Day 1, 8pm |
Melt butter in pan | Day 1, 8.10pm |
Simmer butter on low for 7–8 minutes until it is a light, nutty colour | Day 1, 8.15pm |
Mix all batter ingredients | Day 1, 8.30pm |
Transfer the batter to the cake tin | Day 1, 8.40pm |
Cover and leave overnight | Day 1, 8.45pm |
Preheat oven | Day 2, 8am |
Guidance, tips & techniques
Method:
Day 1:
Grease your cake tin with butter and sprinkle with muesli, removing any dried fruit (which will burn if left). To make the beurre noisette, melt 100g butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Leave to simmer for about 15 minutes. Be careful – it will get very hot. The beurre noisette is ready when the butter has turned a golden colour and the milk solids have turned brown. Turn off the heat and leave to cool.
Add the flour and salt to a mixing bowl. Mix in the date syrup, beurre noisette, eggs and sourdough starter. Make sure you only stir the mixture; do not whip. When all the ingredients are well combined, the batter is ready put half of the raspberries into a buttered cake tin, and sprinkle the museli over the base then transfer the batter to your prepared cake tin. Cover with a wet tea towel, wax cloth or a shower cap and leave on the counter top until the next day, or for 14–16 hours.
Day 2:
8am – Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Bake for 15–18 minutes until golden brown. Remember that all ovens behave differently, so always check the cake before the time recommended, making sure it is firm and springy. Check for done-ness with a skewer before removing.
When cool enough to handle, place on a wire rack, pop the reserved raspberries into the holes of the cooked raspberries (which soften significantly during the baking). Gently pushing in the fresh ones gives an amazing flavour and it looks very pretty – plus you get both even more polyphenols.
Serve warm with cultured cream. Delicious.
My recipe for Cultured Cream has just been published in my latest book The Sourdough School Sweet Baking: Nourishing the Gut & the Mind which you can order via the link.
![Milling flour for the raspberry sourdough cake](https://thesourdoughschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Evening-shot-1-330x413.jpg)
![Mixing Raspberry Sourdough cake](https://thesourdoughschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cake-sourdough-330x496.jpg)
![Sourdough Raspberry Cake on table](https://thesourdoughschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Raspbery-Cake-2-330x413.jpg)
Learning Outcome
You will understand how to increase diversity within your sweet sourdough bakes.