Bay Butter Sand Cake (Dear Joe, aromatic Scotland)

Big on bay, plush, dense and crumbly

Dear Joe

This cake is big on bay, big on vanilla, big on texture (crumbly, plush, and dense in delicious harmony). It came about from my visit to Grandad in Scotland, where we ate beans on toast together and admired the bay tree in his garden. His bay tree is young: you have to snap the small leaves to release the herb's smell, not like mature bay trees that only need to be brushed for the fragrance to stick to your fingertips. I’ve heard bay described as aromatic, but I’m not sure that means much to me. What I smell in bay is an intense sweetness immediately bolstered by spice and heat, which, translated to flavour, comes off as sweetly musty, almost minty. On the train ride home, and the few days that followed, I was bay mad, the smell was stuck, until the idea of bay-infused butter arrived (with credit to mum - I was trying to infuse it in milk with not much success) …and then, well, here we are. Don’t be put off by the mention of sand in the title, it refers to the German Sandkuchen, a cake made with cornflour resulting in a pleasingly sandy textured sponge - good to sink into.

Tear 9 good-sized bay leaves in half and add to a saucepan with 260g unsalted butter. Heat gently until the butter has melted, then put on a lid. Allow the butter to simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally. Remove from the heat and let the saucepan stand with its lid on for 1 hour. After an hour, the butter should still be a bit liquid. Take out the bay leaves and discard them. Weigh the butter, then pour it into a large mixing bowl, adding chunks of unsalted butter if needed to get the weight to 250g. Allow the bowl to stand until it solidifies at room temperature (about 2 hours).

Grease and line a 3lb / 28 x 13 cm loaf tin (if you don’t have a tin big enough, bake off the extra batter in a cupcake pan). Preheat the oven to 180/160 fan. Add 200g caster sugar to the bowl of bay butter and beat until the mix is only just fluffed up on the sides of the bowl. Now season the batter with the zest of one medium lemon, a good pinch of salt, a generous ¼ tsp cracked black pepper, and 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (you can use 2 tsp vanilla extract). Beat in 4 medium eggs, one at a time. Fold in 125g cornflour/cornstarch, 125g plain flour and ½ tsp baking powder. Pour the gorgeously shiny and pale batter into the tin, making sure the mix only fills the tin ¾ full. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for about 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool before slicing.

Love Caitlin x