Blackberry and Quark Cake

This blackberry and quark cake is easy to make and it’s just perfect. The quark makes it soft and juicy as well as healthy and light. I get best results with Swedish Quark (Lindahl’s), the Arla Quark cooking cheese is a bit too ‘yoghurty’, but still usable. Try it with some whipped cream or on its own, just sprinkled with icing sugar. The best companion with your Sunday afternoon coffee!

Ingredients:

• 170g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 250g quark
• 1 small punnet (handful) of blackberries
• 145g caster sugar
• 2 egg whites and egg yolks (separate)
• 1 teaspoon (10g) baking powder
• A few drops vanilla extract
• Zest from half a lemon (unwaxed)
• 2 tbsp milk
• Butter and finely grated breadcrumbs to line the cake tin
• Flour to dust the blackberries
• Icing sugar to sprinkle on top

Method:

Combine the softened butter with sugar and whisk in the egg yolks one at a time.

Add the quark, vanilla extract and lemon zest into the mixture. If needed, dilute with lukewarm milk and mix gently, until combined.

Sift the flour with the baking powder into a clean bowl. Add to the dough base and mix thoroughly.

Preheat oven to 180°C (fan 160°C/gas 4).

Whisk the egg whites to form a ‘firm peak’ foam. Gently stir into the dough, adding 1-2 tablespoons of the whisked egg whites at a time.

Grease a 23cm cake tin with a thin layer of butter and line with finely ground breadcrumbs.

Transfer the dough into the tin and on top, add a handful of washed blackberries, each piece of fruit dusted with a small amount of flour, which will make sure it won’t fall through the dough and will stay on top.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden-brown.  Baking time is individual as it depends on oven performance. To test if you can take it out of the oven, you can stick a skewer into the cake and if no dough is stuck at the end of the skewer, the cake is ready. Take the cake out of the oven, leave it to cool down for a few minutes, then take it out of the tin and place on a fine metal grid to cool completely. Sprinkle with icing sugar when still hot.

Enjoy!