Blueberry and Lemon Friands

 

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website about a year ago and printed it off, but I’ve only just got around to making them as I just happened to have all the ingredients in the house. It’s a shame I never tried the recipe earlier as they are absolutely delicious. The cake is extremely light and moist and the fresh tang of lemon zest and the blueberries gives them a ‘Summer’s here!’ taste.

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

I used 3 large egg whites instead of medium because we only use large eggs. They had been frozen and I defrosted them overnight in the fridge, then I left them at room temperature for about an hour before using.

 

Instead of using non-stick friand or muffin tins, I used my new silicone cake cases that Steve’s Mum bought me from Wilkinsons. They worked really well as they held their shape when I put the cake mixture in and so I just put them on a baking tray to make it easier to get them in/out of the oven. Once baked, the cakes were easy to pop out of the silicone cases, but I did think that they retained the steam as the cakes were cooling and this made the bottoms of the cake slightly soggy.

 

The silicone cases are the size of fairy cakes cases, so I managed to make 7 cakes instead of 6. I have tried making these in paper fairy cases and I managed to make 12, but they were very thin/shallow and not as good as when I used the silicone cases.

 

TASTE TEST:

Well these went down a complete storm! Steve’s Dad doesn’t like almonds, so I warned him before he tried them that they were made of mainly ground almonds, but he tried them anyway and he said they were probably the best cakes I’ve made!

 

I will definitely make these again, but they will be considered a once-in-a-while treat as I think they’re expensive to make because they’re made of ground almonds and blueberries aren’t cheap either. Plus they’re just over 300 calories each!

 

• 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 125g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 25g plain flour
• 85g ground almonds
• 3 medium/large egg whites
• 1 unwaxed lemon, grated rind only
• 85g blueberries

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to fan 180C/conventional 200C/gas 6. Generously butter six non-stick friand or muffin tins. Melt the butter and set aside to cool (nuke in the microwave for 35-40 seconds).
2. Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, add the almonds and stir together.
3. Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, tip in the egg whites and lemon rind, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.
4. Divide the batter among the tins (using a jug was the easiest way). Sprinkle a handful of blueberries over each cake and bake for 15-20 minutes (mine took 20 minutes) until just firm to the touch and golden brown.
5. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, dust lightly with icing sugar.

Lemon Loaf – Hummingbird Bakery

 

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

 

After the success of the Chocolate Cupcakes that I’d made from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, I decided to try out the lovely looking Lemon Loaf. This is one of the recipes which suffered from a misprint in the first edition of the book. Luckily my edition has the correct weight for plain flour as 350g and a baking time of 1 hour 15 minutes.

 

Just like the cupcake recipe, the method was a little unorthodox, but I followed it strictly and I am pleased to say that the recipe was a success. The cake was a little heavier than I expected, but it was full of zesty lemon flavour and it kept perfectly for a full week. I actually preferred to eat this warm after it had been nuked in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Even though this was a good recipe, I’m not sure if I’d make it again because the sponge was a little heavy. I will probably just add some lemon zest to a different sponge recipe, but I would definitely use the lemon syrup again.

 

• Makes: 8-10 slices
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C
• Oven shelf: middle
• You will need: a 23 x13cm loaf tin, greased and dusted with flour

 

Ingredients:

• 320g caster sugar
• 3 eggs (I used large)
• grated zest of 2 lemons, unwaxed
• 350g plain flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt (I omitted this as I used salted butter)
• 250ml whole milk (I used semi-skimmed)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200g unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE LEMON SYRUP:

• freshly squeezed juice and zest of 1 lemon (I only used the juice as I ran out of zest!)
• 50g caster sugar

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C.
2. Put the sugar, eggs and lemon zest in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat until well mixed.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl.
4. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in another bowl.
5. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and beat well, then beat in one-third of the milk mixture. Repeat this process twice more until everything has been added. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
6. Turn the mixer down to low speed, pour in the melted butter and beat until well incorporated.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched.

 

For the lemon syrup: while the cake is baking, put the lemon juice and zest, sugar and 100ml water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over low heat. Raise the heat and boil until it has reduced by half, or until it has a thin syrup consistency. When the hot cake comes out of the oven, put it on a wire cooling rack and pour the syrup all over the top. Leave to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto the wire cooling rack to cool completely.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• I used my silicone loaf tin as it was the perfect size. It didn’t need any greasing or lining and it was a doddle to turn the cake out.

Triple Lemon Cake

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I made this cake up and I call it Triple Lemon Cake as there is lemon juice and lemon curd in the sponge mixture and lemon icing drizzled on top, so it’s nice and zingy! It’s quite similar to the Swirly Lemon Drizzle Fingers I made, except this sponge is super light and fluffy, whereas that one had more of a crunchy texture.

• You will need: loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
• Oven shelf: middle 

Cake Ingredients:

• 175g / 6oz butter
• 175g / 6oz caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 175g / 6oz self-raising flour, sifted
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice from 1 lemon)
• 5-6 teaspoons lemon curd (you can leave this out if you don’t have any) 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. In a bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in thoroughly until well incorporated. (You can add a tablespoon of flour with the each egg to make it easier to mix them in).
4. Add the flour, vanilla extract and the lemon juice and mix well. (Alternatively you can put everything into a food processor in the above order).
5. Tip the cake mixture into the loaf tin, then drop little blobs of the lemon curd on top. Using a chopstick or skewer, swirl the lemon curd through the cake mixture.
6. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes on the middle shelf until a skewer inserted comes out clean. If it’s not quite brown on the top, you can move the cake to the top shelf for about 5 minutes.
7. Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack.

Icing Ingredients:

• 100g / 3.5oz icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (juice from ½ a lemon)

Directions:

1. Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice until you have a thick but running paste (It should fall off the spoon in a steady stream. You may need to add more icing sugar to thicken or some water to loosen).
2. Pour the icing over the cake and let it drizzle down the edges.
3. Leave to set for about 10 minutes before serving.

Swirly Lemon Drizzle Fingers

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

This recipe is from BBC Good Food magazine and I thought it would be a good recipe to try out as we had loads of lemon juice and zest leftover from Pancake Day.

It uses polenta, which I have baked with before (see my recipe for Blueberry Crunch Cake) and it gives cakes a different texture and flavour. If you can’t find polenta then you can just use 200g/8oz self-raising flour instead.
The swirl part of the cake is lemon curd, but you can leave this out and it will still be delicious.

• Makes: 18 fingers
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C moderate
• You will need: 20cm x 30 cm rectangular baking tin 

Ingredients:

• 200g/8oz butter, softened
• 200g/8oz golden caster sugar (or light brown sugar)
• 4 large eggs
• 100g/4oz fine polenta or fine cornmeal
• 140g/5oz self-raising flour
• zest 3 lemons 

For the swirl and the drizzle:

• 4 Tablespoons lemon curd
• 4 Tablespoons golden or white caster sugar (I used a mixture of half demerara and half white caster sugar)
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 Tablespoons) 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C and make sure the middle shelf of your oven is ready.
2. Butter your baking tin and cut a sheet of baking paper a bit larger than the tin, then push it in and smooth it out so it sticks to the butter. Snip into the corners with some scissors to get the paper to lie neatly. (Don’t skip this step, even if you use a non-sticks silicone pan like I did, as it will make it much easier to get it out of the tin later).
3. Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and use electric beaters to beat until creamy and smooth. Alternatively put the cake ingredients into a food processor. I found that the mixture looked like it had split a little, but this was fine.
4. Scoop into your prepared tin, then level the top.
5. Spoon the lemon curd over the batter in thick stripes. I found it easiest to give the lemon curd a good mix in a small bowl first to get it nice and soft and smooth.
6. Use the handle of a spoon or a chopstick to swirl the curd into the batter, but not too much or you won’t see the swirls once it’s cooked. I found you can’t really see the curd swirls after it’s baked and you’re going to cover it with drizzle anyway.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and risen. It should have shrunk away from the sides of the tin and feel springy.
8. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, or until just cool enough to handle. Then carefully lift out of the tin and put it onto a cooling rack, sat over a tray or something similar to catch the drips of drizzle.
9. To make the drizzle: mix the sugar with the lemon juice and spoon over the cake.
10. Let the cake cool completely and cut into fingers.
11. Will keep in an airtight tin for 3 days.