A store cupboard staple gets its chance to shine in this irresistible cake recipe from 'Ottolenghi SIMPLE TOO' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Verena Lochmuller
IMAGE: JONATHAN LOVEKIN
An ingredient can easily sit in the pantry forever, before we suddenly rediscover it and see it in a new light. Here it’s dark brown soft sugar, which we have always loved but have never made a concerted effort to build a whole cake around, using its deeply unique toasty notes and the sugary moisture that it holds within. It does, however, make the cake sink in the middle ever so slightly, but we don’t mind – once it’s topped with cream no one will ever know!
The brown sugar cake and cream are pretty perfect as they are, but they are truly completed by adding sumac roasted strawberries (find the recipe in Ottolenghi SIMPLE TOO); it really is (blissful) death by brown sugar. Still, you can take all kinds of different directions and finish the cake with chocolate shavings, a drizzle of carob or date molasses, passion fruit pulp or raspberry jam.
