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.

Blueberry (& Raspberry) Crunch Cake

I have halved the quantities in this recipe by Sue Lawrence, as her original quantities makes a huge cake and since this is quite a rich and filling cake, a small piece is quite sufficient!

The polenta gives the cake a lovely crunchy topping and quite a unique flavour.

I have only ever tried this recipe with fresh berries but I'm sure frozen ones would work just as well. The combination of blueberries and raspberries is excellent, but when I recently made this I didn't have any raspberries because they were too expensive, so I substituted them for 1 gala apple cut into small dice and it gave a good result.
This is great served with the blueberry syrup (see pancakes).

• Oven shelf position: upper-middle
• Oven temperature: pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C/Gas mark 4
• Baking time: 50 minutes to 1 hour
  
• You will also need a 20cm/8in springform cake tin, lightly buttered

Ingredients
100g Polenta - plus 1 teaspoon
250g Self raising flour, sifted
160g Golden caster sugar
Grated zest 1 unwaxed lemon (optional)
160g Cold unsalted butter, diced
1 Large free-range egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
125g Blueberries
125g Raspberries
12g Demerara sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4
2. Place the 100g of polenta, the flour and sugar in a large food processor and process for a few seconds. Add the lemon zest and butter and process again until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (alternatively rub the butter into the dry ingredients by hand as if making a crumble mixture)
3. Add the beaten egg and lemon juice then process using the pulse button, or mix, very briefly, until just combined.
   
4. Tip about two-thirds of the mixture into the prepared tin, pressing down all over.
5. Sprinkle the teaspoon of polenta over the base, then scatter over the blueberries and raspberries (or whatever fruit you're using)
6. Sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top, then crumble the remaining cake mixture over to cover. Press down very lightly, then bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
7. Cool on a wire rack, then remove from the tin.