An excuse soon cropped its head up though, in the form of six hungry men doing a days work on a farm together. My Dad was more than pleased when I offered to bake a cake for him to take along, so I went for something simple and portable.
This cake definitely isn't a visual stunner, but it gets 10/10 from me for taste. Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
175g very soft butter
175g golden caster sugar
250g self raising flour
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
175g mixed summer fruits, stoned (I used strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and a few cherries.) - I actually used closer to 275g and the cake turned out perfectly...
140g granulated sugar
1-2tsp lemon juice
Method:
Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 fan). Grease a 900g loaf tin and line the base and ends with a long strip of baking parchment.
Put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer for 5 minutes until pale an creamy. The mixture will be very thick.
This is such a super simple summer bake that you really have no excuse not to bake it. Although I didn't get a chance to guzzle more than half a slice before my Dad whipped it away, I bet it would be beautiful with a dollop of whipped cream or creme fraiche.