Nettle Cake

If you go for a walk in early spring the little nettle shoots are just peeking through, by mid April there is an abundance of them everywhere.

Nettles are so good for you too. Stinging nettle is a wild, unique herbaceous perennial flowering plant with stinging hairs. It has a long history of use as a food sources as a soup or curries, and also used as a fiber as well as a medicinal herb.

There’s so many things you can make with them, my first choice was cake! Look how beautiful the vibrant mossy green colour is.

Firstly collect about 2 cups worth of nettle tops. Remember to wear gloves, unless you like being stung…which may sound crazy but did you know nettle stings actually have benefits?

“While its sting may be uncomfortable, it actually has a beneficial effect on inflammation in the body. By preventing the body from making inflammatory prostaglandins, the sting results in an overall less inflammatory reaction in the body. Urtication, the practice of intentionally flogging yourself with nettle stings, is used as a treatment for inflammatory conditions such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis that has been proven to be effective by clinical studies. It might seem crazy, but applying nettle to arthritic joints will reduce both pain and dependence on medication!”

Taken from healingsanctuary.clinic

So you have your nettles, here’s the recipe.
This works well with dairy alternatives too if you are vegan/vegetarian.

You will need;

• 2 cups of nettles

• 120g Self Raising Flour

• 120g Caster Sugar

• 120g Butter

• 100ml Milk

• 2 Eggs

• 1 tsp Baking Powder

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Wash and steam your nettles for about 4 mins. This takes the sting away. Rinse in cold water and squeeze the excess water off. Blend them up with 100ml milk (whichever milk you use) and pop aside for when needed.

Mix butter and sugar together, the add in the eggs, flour, baking powder, vanilla essence and lemon juice. Add in your nettles! Give them a good mix and pour in your cake/ loaf tin. We made a loaf cake and I baked mine on gas mark 4 for about 25mins/ until clean skewer comes out.

We decorated ours very simply, a little bit of icing drizzle and some pretty flowers.

It’s so simple and so satisfying!
My little boy approved! Yum!