WHITE WINE CAKE
Gâteau au Vin Blanc
In French wine regions growers and merchants often have ends of bottles after tastings for clients. No point in waste - white wines can go into sauces for fish and chicken,and easily find a place in deserts. This recipe, which I love using when there is a little white wine left in a bottle after a dinner, was given to me by a lady in the Loire. It is a simply-made cake, light and delicious, much nicer than it sounds! It is good with fresh berries, compôtes, poached fruit of any kind, vanilla custard, or sliced and spread with jam.
FOR 6 PEOPLE ( approximately, depending on what you serve with it)
3 eggs 250 g (8 oz) caster sugar 1 pinch of salt grated zest of 1 lemon 75 ml (21⁄2 fl oz) sunflower or groundnut oil
100 ml (31⁄2 fl oz)white wine 175 g (6 oz) plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder butter for greasing
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F, 190°C.
Butter a 23 cm (9 in) sponge tin or small charlotte mould.
Beat the eggs, sugar, salt and lemon zest together until white. Add the oil and wine and continue beating for two more minutes.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and carefully fold into the mixture until completely incorporated.
Pour into the tin and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes. Turn out of the mould onto a cooling rack.
PS Have a slice while it's warm! That's what photographer Katerina Kalogeraki and I did after shooting these pics the other day in my kitchen.
