Nettle and lemon cake with lemon buttercream recipe

This is how to turn prickly stinging nettles into the key ingredient of a beautiful cake. Don't go picking them up without decent gloves on though! Use the top 4-6 leaves of nettle plants to make sure you're choosing the youngest leaves to work with.

Ingredients

For the cake For the lemon buttercream To decorate (optional)

Details

  • Cuisine: English
  • Recipe Type: Dessert
  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Preparation Time: 40 mins
  • Cooking Time: 25 mins
  • Serves: 10

Step-by-step

  1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F. Grease and line two 7” round cake tins.
  2. Using rubber gloves, carefully wash the stinging nettle leaves and remove any stems. Place in a pan of boiling water and boil for 3-4 minutes. The sting will be removed with the boiling. Refresh under cold water, drain and puree. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in the nettles, vanilla, zest and lemon juice.
  4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to gently combine.
  5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared tins, push to the edges and level, then bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the tins and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
  6. For the icing: In a large bowl, cream the butter until fluffy. Add in the icing sugar and beat. Beat in the zest and a little of the lemon juice. Add more lemon juice to make it a frosting consistency and beat again. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
  7. To assemble: Spread a little of the buttercream between the layers of the completely cooled cakes and sandwich together. Cover the cake in the remaining buttercream and decorate with blackberries and lemon zest.

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