1 Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Find a wine bottle that fits through central hole of a 25.5cm (10in) bundt cake tin (inverted tin will balance on this after cake is cooked). Set aside. Sift flour and 100g (31⁄2oz) sugar into a medium bowl. Set aside.
Step 2
In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric whisk until frothy. Add salt, lemon juice and cream of tartar; beat again until soft peaks form. Add rest of sugar, 1tbsp at a time, whisking back to stiff peaks after each addition. When mixture is stiff and glossy and no sugar can be felt when mixture is rubbed between finger and thumb, mix in vanilla extract and nut essence.
Step 3
Sprinkle over a third of the flour and sugar mixture. Gently fold through with a whisk or metal spoon. Repeat with remaining flour mix until you have a thick, lump-free batter.
Step 4
Spoon mixture into ungreased tin, smoothing top. Bake in lower third of oven for 40-50min until springy and a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
Step 5
Remove cake from oven. Invert bundt tin immediately, placing central hole over wine bottle, and balance gently. Cool cake in this way for 1hr, then remove from bottle, run a knife around tin's edges and transfer to a plate.
Step 6
In a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt mascarpone until runny, then remove from heat. Add white chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, leave to cool until thick but still runny. Drizzle over cake, piling fresh berries on to central section.
Serving tip: Cake is best enjoyed fresh, but can be made a day ahead, stored in an airtight container and decorated before serving. Cooling the cake in its tin, inverted on a bottle, helps it to retain a good height and light texture.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
