Raspberry Shortcake

The "pimping" of biscuits (or cookies depending on where you live) over on Taste forums has sprung up a competition over at the The Claytons Blog challenging us all to pimp a biscuit for the chance to win a very nifty looking "batter finger" spatula. I have already done the mint slice so I could have just left it at that but last weekend I had some friends coming around for an early lunch and I wanted something a bit different for dessert so I decided to pimp another biscuit.

I took myself over to the Arnott's website and had a look at their range, something that would be easy to "pimp" and something that would be tasty. I decided I wanted something that wasn't chocolate this time as most of the Arnott's chocolate range had been done by other Tasters. There are a few others that could be done but most would take more planning and time than I had available. I decided to go with the lovely Raspberry Shortcake.

By choosing the Raspberry Shortcake it also gave me a chance to use my Cookie cake pans from Williams Sonoma. I was lucky enough to be part of a group of lovely ladies that received a parcel, after it passed through a number of hands, containing a pair of these wonderful tins. An online store saying that they do not ship internationally will not stop a woman on mission. Not only did the pans arrive in perfect condition but I was updated about every step of their journey and pretty much knew where they were at any given point from the point of purchase until it was delivered into my hot little hands. My first attempt to bake in this adorable set of pans was not a rousing success. I have always resisted purchasing the Wilton Bake Easy or Cake Release products. I had long ago found a recipe for a home made version of the cake release which had always served me well in the past. Unfortunately it did not serve me well on this occasion. The cake had to come out of the pans in crumbs. It was the only way of getting it out. I was very disappointed with this but didn't let it stop me for long. I ordered a couple of cans of the Bake Easy, along with a variety of other stuff to make the postage worthwhile. It had arrived in time for me to use it here.

I was unsure of what recipe to use in the tin, wary of my first attempt when I used a sand cake recipe. I decided to go with a recipe that I knew EmmCee had used in hers for her Mega Lamington. So off I went armed with Nigella's Spruced up Vanilla Cake recipe, which has got to be one of the easiest and most tasty vanilla cakes ever.

225gms softened butter
300g caster sugar
6 eggs
350g self raising flour
250ml plain thick style greek yogurt
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz together for around 90 seconds or until combined

Pour evenly into 2 x 8" greased round cake tins.

Place in a preheated 160C fan forced oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Turn out after 5 minutes and let cool thoroughly.

You will end up with two cakes like this:

I spread the bottom cake with some lovely raspberry jam.

Then, using an 8 cm round pastry cutter, I cut out a hole in the cake for the top layer and placed it on top of the jam covered bottom.

Now, the filling in the actual biscuit it is just a jam-like filling that pushes its way up when the top biscuit is pressed onto the bottom. I was not going to put that much jam on the bottom layer, I also did not want to just fill the hole with huge quantities of jam as I didn't think that it would be very nice with all that jam. I had a box of frozen raspberries in the freezer so I thawed half of it and combined it with a couple of spoonfuls of raspberry jam to add a bit of sweetness. It probably would have been better if it was thickened or if I had added some gelatine or something so that it would have set but I decided not to worry about it and just piled it into the centre. It didn't taste exactly like a Raspberry Shortcake biscuit, personally I think that it was so much better with a drizzle of cream over the top even if the filling did flow out all over the cake plate as soon as it was cut.