Blackberry and Lemon Loaf

Grease and fully line a 23 cm x 12 cm loaf tin with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

Put the butter, sugar, citrus zest and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Do not boil the mixture. Cool.

Whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs. The mixture will be thick but runny.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, pour on the butter mixture and whisk until smooth.

Pour half the mixture into the tin and dot with half the blackberries, gently pushing them into the batter. If using frozen berries do not thaw first as thawed fruit will bleed into the batter. Carefully pour over the remaining batter and place the remaining blackberries on the top. Don’t push them into the batter. Sprinkle the berries with sugar.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until the cake is firm to the touch and is pulling away from the sides. Cover the top lightly with foil if it is browning too fast. Cool in the tin.

To serve: Remove the cake from the tin and transfer to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and serve with a bowl of softly whipped cream.

Cook’s tip: For the best results when baking, use light-coloured metal cake tins. Dark-coloured tins will cause the cake to overbrown. Use a double thickness of baking paper if using dark-coloured tins. Glass or ceramic pans are great for puddings but not cakes, as they do not conduct the heat sufficiently.