Recipe: Yoghurt and raspberry cake with elderflower syrup from Matthew Evans

• Cider-soaked chicken
• Apple and radish salad with walnut oil

This is a variation on a Greek-inspired yoghurt cake I've been making for some years. The raspberries tend to sink into the batter a bit as the cake rises, which is just perfect.

Serves 8-10

25g butter, softened

200g castor sugar

3 eggs

finely grated zest and strained juice of ½ lemon (1 tbsp juice and ½ tsp zest)

200g self-raising flour

200g natural yoghurt

150g raspberries

80ml water

150g sugar

1 tbsp elderflower cordial (concentrate)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 20-centimetre round cake tin and line the base and side with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. It may look a bit curdled but don't worry, we'll fix that.

Gently fold in the lemon zest and flour and then fold in the yoghurt. Use a spatula to scrape into the cake tin, making the centre a little lower than the edges. Dot the raspberries over the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cake cooks, heat the water, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and simmer for five minutes.

When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven, but leave it in the tin. Poke a fine skewer into the cake about 30 times all over. Remove the syrup from the heat and add the elderflower cordial, then spoon the syrup over the top of the cake.

Try to spoon it so it soaks into the holes evenly rather than all soaking into the edges.

Allow to cool, then serve on a picnic rug, in dappled shade, in any season.

Recipes from Summer on Fat Pig Farm by Matthew Evans. Murdoch Books. $49.99.

See Matthew Evans at a special Meet the Chef dinner at University House at the Australian National University on Monday, November 9, at 6.30pm. $65-$70. Tickets from eventbrite.com.au