I decided on the spur of the moment to make this the other day. I found it in another of those little booklets that they send out with BBC Good Food magazine. It was full of recipes for kids. I'd got my eye on it and it's largely based on ingredients that in my store cupboard so I decided to give it a go. I was a bit short of raspberries (I had some in my freezer) so I ended up using less and it was fine.
What attracted me to it was a combination of some of my favourite flavours, coconut - which I adore - and raspberry. The original recipe suggests you can use other fruits - such as chopped pineapple, mango, plum or whole blackberries - but I don't think it would be as nice. Coconut and raspberry is truly a marriage made in heaven so I can't see how you can improve on it. And I can confirm that using frozen fruit straight from the freezer works fine!
This filled the house with the most gorgeous aroma whilst cooking. I could barely wait for it to cool down before having a taste, but by then, the children were home, and wanted some too. How very dare they!
Bake this, you won't be disappointed. The bottom was light and spongey, studded with juicy raspberries and topped with toasted coconut. These have disappeared at a vast rate of knots. It would be a crime to keep these for the children, quite frankly.
This is my take on the original recipe.
Raspberry and Almond Tray Bake
(Cuts into 24 pieces)
Ingredients
250g/9oz self-raising flour
200g/7oz butter, diced
50g/2oz ground almonds
280g/10oz golden caster or granulated sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
70g/2.5oz desiccated coconut
340-450g/12oz-1lb raspberries, fresh (or 340g frozen)
1. Butter an oblong cake tin - approximately 30x18cm and at least 3cm deep - if it's non-stick, it won't need as much, if at all. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Either place the flour, ground almonds, sugar and diced butter a bowl and rub the butter in , or place in a food processor and whizz together until the butter is evenly distributed. (Tip - if you have a small food processor like mine, tipping the butter in first should help it mix in better as the butter will be closer to the blades. It also helps to be slightly soft and not straight out of the fridge!)
2. Take out 85g/3oz of the mix and place in a bowl with the coconut. Stir together and keep on one side. Add the eggs, and the vanilla extract if using, to the remaining mix and whizz together or mix. The mix does not need to be very smooth.
3. Spread the mixture over the base of the tin, then place about half of the raspberries over the top. Sprinkle over the coconut mixture and place in the oven for 45 minutes. Dot the remaining fruit over the surface, then bake for a further 15 minutes, until it's firm to the touch. Cool in the tin, then cut into slices or squares.
Allegedly, they keep for up to two days in the fridge. If they last that long.
