Cosy cake

I’m naming all my cakes in honour of my lovely friends on the condition that they make a donation to a food bank and this cake is named after the lovely Cosy (not her real name just in case you were wondering) who likes liquorice as much as I do.

This is an expensive cake and it uses a couple of forms of liquorice that you can’t buy off a supermarket shelf so this is one for the hardcore liquorice lovers. Lakrids by Bülow are my go to liquorice specialist.

I make this in a half pound loaf tin but I am experimenting in making a larger one.

Cream together 58 grams of soft margarine with 58 grams of brown caster sugar. It should become fluffy and pale in colour.

Whisk in a beaten egg (I use a balloon whisk) adding a little flour if it curdles. I’ve found that if you give it some welly it all binds well without needing to add the flour until it’s time to do so in the final part of the recipe.

Beat in a tablespoon of salty liquorice syrup – the mixture will become darker at this point.

Sieve in 67 grams of flour to which a teaspoon of raw Persian liquorice has been added and fold in gently with a metal spoon.

Bake in a greased and based lined 1/2lb loaf tin on 170c for 30 minutes or so.