So this cake was inspired by one of my favourite food bloggers – Thahmina, at Golden Tiffin. Seriously, check her blog out – her photography is unbelievable. Her blog is an amalgamation of lifestyle, review and recipe posts influenced by her Bengali heritage. She posted a picture of her rose, raspberry and pistachio bundt on Instagram a while ago and I knew I had to recreate it for my readers (even though hers looks like 300x better). The middle eastern flavours are stunning, and it pairs perfectly with a hot cup of tea. The flavours are light but there’s an earthy depth to rose and pistachio that makes this cake comforting and warm – a feeling we could all use as Winter draws closer.

If any of you were interested in the now-monthly chronicles of my life, I guess I’d better let you know what I’ve been up to recently… This summer was quite enlightening. I finally figured out, after much deliberation, what field I wish to pursue my career in. Yes, I deliberately used the vague term ‘field’ because it’s so non-specific. Nevertheless, it was a big decision for me and I’m glad I’ve got some new goals to work to. First and foremost though, must. finish. masters.🙄 I’ve recently moved to a new city – and whilst that’s great and everything, my current living situation doesn’t include an oven. I know. Disaster. However, I do post over on www.bakedbyhbeauty.com every so often, if you’re into that sort of thing. I’ll take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who emails me lovely things and sends me pictures of your bakes – it’s pretty much the only thing that inspires me to bake! How circular… Also, thank you to dotcomgiftshop for the recent feature. Don’t forget to check them out for cute and quirky holiday gifts.

For the cake:

180g salted butter, room temperature

180g caster sugar

180g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp rose extract

handful of fresh or frozen raspberries 

3 eggs

120ml milk

For the icing:

100g icing sugar, sifted

One or two DROPS of rose extract (taste as you go along)

A few teaspoons of milk

A handful of crushed pistachios to decorate  

Recipe slightly adapted from Golden Tiffin

1. Heat an oven to 160FAN and grease a bundt tin very liberally with cake release spray, or butter.

2. Add the butter, sugar, flour and bicarb to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat. You can also use a hand whisk or just a wooden spoon and some elbow grease.

3. Put the milk in a jug and add the eggs, vanilla and rose extract. Whisk together.

4. With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the milk mixture to the rest of the ingredients until incorporated.

5. Lay raspberries in your bundt tin before adding the cake mix. The raspberries will then be baked in to the top of the bundt once it’s turned out.

6. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the top is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on it from about 35-40 minutes as all ovens are different.

7. Let the cake cool in the tin slightly, if you’ve greased it well, it should turn out with ease. Let it cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

8. Mix the icing ingredients together and drizzle on top of the cake. Top with raspberries and pistachios, if you like.

This cake should ideally be eaten on the same day – if your raspberries make the cake go a funny colour, don’t worry – it’s a chemical reaction between the raspberries and the bicarb. It’s perfectly safe.