Hurray, it's Friday! We've had 7 days back at school and now have a bank holiday to look forward :) Cue sunshine (wishful thinking?) and the seaside. Double hurray! It's been a busy cake week but I wanted a little treat to welcome us into the long weekend.
I love raspberries. I love friands. And now I love raspberry friands. These gorgeous little cakes are dainty, yummy and with quite a dense texture, rather filling too. They are best served warm and straight from the oven but are still delicious several hours later. Um, I'm hoping there might actually be some left by the time the boys get home from school...
These are very simple to make and can be made with different types of fruit which will be a project for the future. I had some amazing friands from a small bakery in New Zealand at Christmas which were filled with delicious lemon curd. They were my absolute favourite. These raspberry ones are very simple where the almond taste really shines through and then the raspberry gives it a lift. All they need is gentle folding through of the ingredients (making the effort to sift the icing sugar and flour) and well greased friand tins (otherwise you may find that they break up when you try to remove them from the tins).
These are perfect for a lunch in the sun or afternoon tea. Go on, give them a go and treat yourself this bank holiday :)
Raspberry Friands (makes 9 friands)
Ingredients
- 200G LIQUID EGG WHITES (or 5 egg whites if you want to crack open your eggs)
- 150G MELTED BUTTER
- 90G GROUND ALMONDS
- 185G SIFTED ICING SUGAR
- 50G SIFTED PLAIN FLOUR
- 125G RASPBERRIES (you need 18 raspberries with 2 on each friand)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)
- Grease a friand tin - you need to grease these well getting into all the nooks and crannies to make sure that your friands don't stick - you will need to grease 9 holes
- Whip the egg whites for a few seconds just to mix them up
- Then add the rest of the ingredients (except the raspberries) - the butter, ground almonds, icing sugar and flour
- Mix on the lowest setting until just combined
- Pour into the friand tin, filling each hole until it's 2/3 full
- Then pop 2 raspberries on the top of each friand
- Bake in the oven for 25 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
- Loosen the friands in their tin and then tip them out gently onto a cooling rack
- Serve warm (ideally) and sprinkled with icing sugar
- Try not to eat them all before your guests arrive!