Rose-scented cake with crystallised flowers
Serves: 8-10
Prep time: 40 mins, including making the crystallised flowers Total time: 
Recipe photograph by Toby Scott
Rose-scented cake with crystallised flowers
Serves: 8-10
Prep time: 40 mins, including making the crystallised flowers Total time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
657Kcal
Fat
39gr
Saturates
24gr
Carbs
67gr
Sugars
43gr
Fibre
1gr
Protein
8gr
Salt
0.4gr
Mark Diacono
Twice winner of Food Book Of The Year, Mark runs Otter Farm, a smallholding with a Kitchen Garden School where visitors can learn about every step in the plot-to-plate process. If he’s not writing about food, he’s growing or eating it.
See more of Mark Diacono’s recipes
Mark Diacono
Twice winner of Food Book Of The Year, Mark runs Otter Farm, a smallholding with a Kitchen Garden School where visitors can learn about every step in the plot-to-plate process. If he’s not writing about food, he’s growing or eating it.
See more of Mark Diacono’s recipes
Ingredients
- 250g soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 250g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 250g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- a splash of whole milk, as needed
- 4 tbsp raspberry jam
- 200ml whipping cream, whipped
For the rose syrup
- 50g caster sugar
- a handful of unsprayed rose petals or ½ tsp rosewater (we used Nielsen Massey)
Step by step
Get ahead
The sponge layers can be frozen. Once assembled, the cake needs to be eaten within about 4 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Lightly grease 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins with butter, and line the bases with baking paper.
- Cream the butter until really soft, then beat with the sugar until fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time, adding a little flour if it hints that it might curdle. Add the vanilla extract, then gently fold in the flour. The batter should fall easily from the spoon; if not, add a little milk to loosen. Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 25 minutes or so, until a cocktail stick poked in the centre comes out clean. Meanwhile, make the syrup. In a small saucepan mix the sugar with 50ml water and dissolve over a gentle heat. Once dissolved, bring to the boil for a minute then turn off the heat and stir in the rose petals or rosewater and infuse, then strain, if using petals.
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Leave the cakes to cool for 5 minutes in the tins before loosening them around the tin edges and turning out on to a wire rack. Drizzle the rose syrup over the top of the 2 sponges and leave to cool and absorb.TipHow to make crystallised flowers
Crystallising captures the flower at its peak, extending the lifespan of its beauty and flavour. It works equally well for herb leaves.
Whisk a large egg white until it forms a light foam, then whisk in half a teaspoon of vodka. Using tweezers to hold the flower at its base, gently paint the petals sparingly with the foam, using a clean artist’s brush. Scatter lightly with caster sugar, or use a sieve or tea strainer to dust an even light coating of icing sugar over the flower. Leave to dry on baking paper in a cool place. Once crisp, the flowers are ready to use to garnish fruit salads, decorate cakes, ice creams or cocktails. They keep for about 5 days, but store them covered loosely with kitchen paper rather than in an airtight container, so they don’t go soft. - Generously spread the flat side of one layer of the cake with jam, spread the other with whipped cream and sandwich them together. Spread the top with more cream, and decorate with crystallised flowers as you like.
