Crème de Cassis Anniversary Cake

Today is my parent's 30th wedding anniversary and as I am staying with them at the moment, it's only right that I bake them a cake to celebrate. I've been doing a lot of baking for them this week as after seeing some of my recent blog posts they wanted to have a taste as well. They're not really ones for a big party to celebrate and as I am flying back home tomorrow morning they are going to do something special tomorrow. But whilst they've still got me for one more night they get a nice cake to share, I think I might be allowed to have a small piece as well. They liked the sound of my sloe gin cake but as I bought a bottle of Crème de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) this week, Mum suggested that might make a nice cake instead. We've already had some kir royale at the weekend with the cassis and a bottle of fizz and no doubt they will have more to celebrate tomorrow as well.

The cake is filled with a freshly made redcurrant jam and the quantities are only approximate as Mum made this bit and I forgot to ask her to weigh the fruit before cooking it, whilst the sponge and the icing are both spiked with a generous amount of cassis. There is no food colouring here, the beautiful purple of the liqueur coloured the icing a rather pretty shade of pink. The redcurrants had been picked from the garden during the summer and had been stashed in the freezer. Alternatively you could use blackcurrant jam to fill the sponge. I was brave and had a go at piping the decorations on top as well. I recently got a small silicone piping bag and it's a lot easier to work with for detailed decorations than a big bag. As I was using Mum's analogue scales this recipe is in imperial because this particular set of scales seem to be easier to read that way. Also Mum tends to work in imperial for baking and knows how much mix will work for each of her cake tins. 

The redcurrant filling

Ingredients

For the cake:
6 oz butter
6 oz caster sugar
3 eggs
6 oz self raising flour
90ml Crème de Cassis

For the filling:
4 heaped tbsp redcurrants
2 tbsp caster sugar

For the icing:
5 oz icing sugar
4 tbsp Crème de Cassis
plus 1 oz icing sugar mixed with a few drops of water for piping

• Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line 2 x 7 inch sandwich tins.
• Use the all in one method to make the sponge layers, whisk all the cake ingredients together using an electric mixer until smooth. Divide the cake mix evenly between the 2 tins and bake for 25 minutes until golden and risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Turn out the cakes on a wire rack to cool.
• Make the filling by heating the redcurrants and sugar together in a small pan and cook until the redcurrants start to go soft, this will take about 10 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan and it should set like jam.
• For the icing mix together the liqueur and the icing sugar until you get a fairly thick spreadable icing. In a separate bowl mix the icing sugar and water for the piping, this needs to be very thick so it will hold it's shape when being piped.
• To assemble the cake place one half on a plate or cake stand and spread with the redcurrant jam and place the other cake on top. Spoon the icing over the top and spread evenly with a palette knife. Spoon the piping icing into a small piping bag and decorate the cake however you like. As this was an anniversary cake I tried to make it look a bit romantic.

 

My parents both loved this cake and I'm quite proud of how it turned out as well. They did let me have a piece afterall and I can say that this is one that I will bake again. It's very fruity and as cassis is only 15% alcohol it's not enough to get you tipsy but gives a wonderful flavour to the icing. The sharpness of the reducrrants also stops this from being too sweet which is perfect for Mum & Dad as they don't like overly sweet cakes.  

I'm entering this into Made With Love Mondays