The Perfect Lemon Drizzle Cake

Ever since I discovered Lemon Drizzle Cakes, I've loved them to bits (bites?). The first recipe I ever tried was Jamie Oliver Nan's Lemon Drizzle Cake. I now know it to be the Lemon Drizzle I least liked. It was too sour, too full of poppy seeds and just too much going on. 

Then I tried the Lemon Drizzle Cake from my favourite recipe site. Now, this is was a Lemon Drizzle I liked. No frills, straight-up, pure lemony goodness with a delectable melt-y icing sugar glaze. I made and fed this recipe to hoards of Hungries who lapped-up every last crumb of it. 

My love for this cake was still going strong when I googled Felicity Cloake's amazing little Perfect blog for Chocolate Cake. Er... what? Chocolate? Where did that come from? Sigh. I was having a craving okay? For a perfect Chocolate Cake, so I went to Felicity and then got distracted instead with the Lemon Drizzle she had made... and I'm still distracted. 

I've made this cake thrice in the space of 2 weeks and I still cannot get enough of it. You know how when you were little, you could stuff yourself silly with your favourite sweet, feel very peculiar after, swear you won't eat so much of it ever again and yet still do when the next opportunity presents itself peculiarity be damned? Well... this is my problem with this cake. I'm addicted.  

To answer Felicity's questions - This IS a big wet sticky kiss of a teatime treat, not a damp squib and YES Lemon is the best-est choice ever!

No fancy photos for this cake. Sorry. It was made with eating in mind, not photography. 

PERFECT LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

Adapted from Felicity Cloake

175g salted Butter, softened

175g Caster Sugar

2 Lemons, zested and juiced

3 Eggs

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

100g Self-Raising Flour

75g Ground Almonds

5 heaping tablespoons Icing Sugar

1 tablespoon Demerara Sugar 

Preheat the oven at 140 Celsius. Butter, flour and line a 2-pound loaf tin. Whisk the Flour and Almonds together in a bowl and set aside. Zest and juice the Lemons. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream Butter, Sugar and Lemon zest with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add in the Eggs one by one mixing well after each addition. Add in the Vanilla and mix that in. Gently fold in the Flour and Almonds set aside earlier.  

Scrap batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30 - 40 minutes at 150 Celsius or until a skewer poked through the centre comes out clean. While hot, use the skewer to poke holes all over the cake. 

In a small jug combine, the Sugars and Lemon juice to make a runny syrup. Pour over hot cake in spoonfuls waiting for the cake to absorb one lot before adding the next. Let cake cool in the tin before removing onto a platter for serving. 

[The only reason I didn't follow Felicity's recipe to a 't' is because the batter didn't need the Milk; I don't like eggy cakes, so Vanilla is a must; and I happen to like Icing Sugar.]

The birthday cake that wasn't

Time is a luxury. So sometimes when I'm craving a particular cake but cannot be bothered to go through the whole hog of waiting for butter to soften, creaming, folding, blah blah blah, I love a super-quick-fix cake that takes all of 10 minutes to put together and another twenty or so to bake. In no time, I'll have nice, warm cake on the table to cut slices from every time I pop into the kitchen for something or other (or just for cake!).

I was feeling like this recently and decided to try out a new recipe for one of those marvellous one-bowl-snap-your-fingers-together-and-its-done oil and yoghurt cakes. An Italian version this time (because it uses Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of vegetable oil) with lots of fragrant freshly grated lemon zest for extra deliciousness using the glass French yoghurt pots I saved from a time when Carrefour was alive and thriving in this country. 

It was also somebody's birthday. Said somebody who lives halfway across the world. I thought it would be nice to bake and eat birthday cake on somebody's behalf. Oh well, why not? I'll take any excuse to eat cake. 

So on the pretext of former and latter, this cake got baked and eaten. I must say I liked this better than the French Yoghurt Cake from last year. This one was all silky, melt-y, moist crumb that I apparently couldn't get quite enough of. 

CIAMBELLONE AL LIMONE

Adapted from Rachel Eats

3 pots Plain Flour

1 pot Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 1/2 pots Caster Sugar

1 pot Greek Yoghurt

3 Eggs

1 heaping teaspoon Baking Powder

The zest of 2 Lemons

Preheat the oven at 140 Celsius. Butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt tin really well.

In a large bowl, whisk together the Plain Flour, Olive Oil, Sugar, Yoghurt, Eggs and Baking Powder. Add in the Lemon zest and whisk vigorously. 

Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until the cake is golden or a skewer poked through comes out clean. 

Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to complete cooling.

Lemon Semolina Cake

I know what I said here, and yet today I cannot help feeling like Christmas has quietly slipped away like a whisper in the night. 

Everyone has started planning Chinese New Year lou sang parties, buying the artery-clogging-utterly-scrumptious bak kwa, making pineapple jam tarts and hanging up great glowing red paper lanterns all over the place. Even the Lion Dance troupes have started making its rounds.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the New Year is well and truly 'unwrapped'. While I cannot turn back the clock, there is another Christmas to look forward to in just about 11 months, so I will say goodbye (for now) to my favourite season of the year with a rather ornery, but oh-so-delicious lemony cake.

LEMON SEMOLINA CAKE

100g Salted Butter, softened

100g Caster Sugar

2 Lemons, zested and juiced

1 whole Egg and 1 Egg Yolk

50g organic Self-Raising Flour

50g fine Semolina

1/8 heaped teaspoon Baking Powder

1 tablespoon Milk

A little Lemon juice and some Icing Sugar, mixed together to form a thick syrup

Preheat oven at 110 Celsius. Grease a 20cm round cake tin thoroughly with butter and dust with flour. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream Butter, Sugar and Zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in Eggs, beating well after each addition.

Gently fold in the Flour, Baking Powder and Semolina by hand into the creamed mixture. Gently mix in the Milk until well-combined.

Scoop batter into the prepared tin and bake at 140 Celsius for about half an hour or until a skewer poked through the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, before turning out onto a serving plate. Drizzle Icing over the still warm cake and leave it to cool completely before serving.

Lemon Drizzle Cake and hope for a better tomorrow...

Evening

Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated by Stephen Mitchell

The sky puts on the darkening blue coat
held for it by a row of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight,
one journeying to heaven, one that falls;

and leave you, not at home in either one,
not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses,
not calling to eternity with the passion of what becomes
a star each night, and rises;

and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel)
your life, with its immensity and fear,
so that, now bounded, now immeasurable,
it is alternately stone in you and star.

It will be tomorrow in a few hours. I can't say I'm looking forward to it with enthusiasm despite the lovely cakes I've had to tide me over the weekend. I think I will need Edmund again, but we'll see. Perhaps a slice of this for dinner will sort me out.

LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

Adapted from BBCGoodFood

250g Butter, softened and a little kept aside to butter the cake tin

225g Caster Sugar

3 Lemons, zested and juiced

Vanilla Beans from 1 Vanilla Pod

4 large Eggs

200g Self-Raising Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

50g Ground Almonds

Icing Sugar

Grease and line a 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin.

Sieve Flour, Ground Almonds and Baking Powder together. Set aside. Cream Butter, Sugar, Vanilla and three-quarters of the Lemon Zest with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in Eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Fold in the Flour mixture gently by hand until just combined. Give the batter a quick mix with the electric beaters (5 - 7 seconds). Fold in three-quarters of the Lemon Juice gently by hand until completely absorbed into the batter. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake at 150 Celsius until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, mix the reserved Lemon Juice with enough sieved Icing Sugar to get a thick, white, spreadable icing. The icing should not be too runny. Pour the icing over the just baked cake and place it back in the oven for about 5 minutes to dry a little. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool completely. The icing will form a thin crust on top of the cake. Sprinkle with reserved Lemon Zest and serve.

Notes

• I used a smaller round cake tin and cupcake cases instead of a 20cm round cake tin.
• I also accidentally left the cake in with the icing a little too long so it started bubbling and made a bit of a mess on the oven floor. This idea (not the mess!) is from Tamami. If you click on the link, you will see that she has given step-by-step instructions on how to get the perfect shiny set icing. I'm of course, a half-past-six baker so I simply mixed and did.
• And yes, I have tried Jamie Oliver's recipe for the same cake. It's a lovely cake by itself. It's got a more full-on mouth-puckering lemon flavour going for it as well as syrup poured in and an icing on top, but I found the poppyseeds distracting.
• I much prefer this cake. The flavour is more elegant and nothing distracts from the moist lemony crumb. Perfect with a cup of hot tea.

I'm back... with the perfect cake for afternoon tea!

Okay, so I've been away for awhile. I've been to London, Paris, Dubai and come home to unpleasant news and a broken heart.

I baked my heart out for quite awhile but am all better now. It took seven loaves of bread, three types of brownies, four types of chocolate chip cookies, chewy toffee cookies, lemon sables, korova cookies and little 'punishments' to chase the blues away.

Unfortunately, I did not stop to take pictures and blog of the lovely things I made during the whirlwind of mending my heart.

Now, I am back to baking and cooking for sheer pleasure. As we speak, there is a lovely Lemon-Orange Loaf in the oven quietly baking away, just in time for the hungry mouths that await it at tea time.

(My aunt got this recipe from one of our local newspapers recently. She can't remember which one, so you'll have to forgive me for not posting it here. We have also left out the icing recipe which came together with that of the cake to keep it simple, less sweet and perfect for Saturday afternoon tea.)

LEMON ORANGE LOAF

130g Butter

110g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 Eggs

Grated rind of 1 Orange

Grated rind of 1 Lemon

240g Self-Raising Flour, sifted

50ml UHT Milk

30ml Orange Juice

30 ml Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 170 Celsius. Grease and flour a 9 inch loaf tin.

Cream Butter, Sugar and Essence until light and fluffy. Then add the Eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in Orange and Lemon rind. Fold in sifted Flour alternating it with combined Milk and fruit Juice. Should the batter begin to curdle, sprinkle in a little Flour. You should begin and end with Flour.

Transfer mixture to the prepared cake tin and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until cake is cooked through when tested with a skewer. Leave the cake in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Pate Sucree... beautiful pastry...

I finally got around to making the Pate Sucree recipe from Fanny of Foodbeam's website. It turned out beautifully and I am very pleased with the results. It has a lovely flavour and nice 'short' texture to keep me in pastry heaven for a long time. I did, however, make slight adjustments to suit my vanilla-loving tastebuds.

With the bounty of oranges and lemons sitting in the fruit basket, I made a St. Clements Curd to go with the pastry. Okay, okay... so it was orginally intended to be an Orange Curd, but halfway through (after a taste or two) I thought it lacked a certain depth. So, in went the juice of two lemons and an extra orange. I used the previous Lemon Curd recipe as a guide, but decided to go with two whole eggs instead of four egg yolks. (I already have 6 egg whites sitting in the fridge, so adding to that was not an option)

PATE SUCREE

300g Butter

160g Icing Sugar

Seeds from 1 Vanilla Pod

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 Eggs

500g Plain Flour

60g Ground Almonds

1/2 tsp Salt

Sieve Plain Flour, Almonds and Salt together. Keep aside.

Cream Butter and Icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add in Eggs one by one, beating well for 5 - 6 seconds after each addition. Add in Seeds from the Vanilla Pod and Essence. Beat for 5 - 6 seconds until incorporated. Gently fold in the Flour mixture until just combined.

*At this point, you can clingfilm and freeze any additional dough for use another time. This recipe makes enough dough to line about four 7 inch tart tins.

*As with any pastry, rest it for about 2 hours in/outside the fridge before using. I usually just leave it on the countertop before using so the dough just rests and does not harden, as it will in the fridge.

Pat dough into a 7 inch tart tin. Prick well and chill for at least half an hour. Remove from fridge, prick again and bake the tart shell blind for about 25 minutes on 150 Celsius. (If pastry starts swelling after 10 minutes, open the oven door and prick all over againto deflate it.) Cool baked tart shell in tin.

ST. CLEMENTS CURD

100ml Orange Juice, plus zest of 1 Orange

Juice of 2 Lemons

150g Caster Sugar

2 whole Eggs

70g Butter, cubed

Grated rind of 1 Orange

2 drops of Vanilla Essence

Beat Eggs, Sugar and Vanilla until sugar dissolves completely. Keep aside. Put juice, rind and Butter into a heavy-based saucepan. Pour in Egg/Sugar mixture into the saucepan. Over low heat stir the mixture carefully, but quickly with a wooden spoon. Continue to beat as mixture reaches boiling point. At this point, the mixture will start thickening quickly. When mixture just starts becoming a thick custard, take it off the heat, give it a good beating and let it cool.

Assembly

Pour Curd into the tart shell and put it back into the oven at 140 Celsius. Watch the tart carefully until the Curd just starts bubbling. Remove the tart from the oven and let it cool completely. Place in the fridge to set.