Banana and rhubarb streuselcake

Yes, I know, it's another rhubarb cake, but damn this is a good one!

It's another recipe from the "Rhubarbaria" I received last Christmas from the Man. I had never come across the pairing of rhubarb and banana so naturally it piqued my interest. I love banana cake, streusel topping and rhubarb so it had to be a winner.

As was the case with the last recipe I baked from this book elements of the recipe were on the vague side, which you can either be infuriated by or view as a fun challenge. I'm in the latter camp.

The recipe mentioned a 9" tin but didn't specify round or square - I guessed round and feel I made the correct choice. The ingredients were also listed as a mixture of ounces and cups. As many recipes from the book are from old UK newspaper clippings or WRI type groups I wasn't sure whether it was referring to standard American cup measures or more an old fashioned "use a drinking cup" type expression similar to my granny's handwritten recipes. In the latter case, capacity of cups vary wildly so you have to use a bit of common sense.

In the end I decided to use my American cup measures but weighed those quantities out in ounces to help gauge the quantities of the ingredients against others. My biggest alteration to the recipe was not adding all of the milk, instead stopping when I felt I had achieved a good consistency with the cake batter.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I put the cake in the oven but what a glorious cake came out. It rose beautifully and smelled amazing. Look at the depth of those slices!

The recipe recommends eating the cake warm like a pudding but it is equally lovely cold. It has a beautiful, soft texture with pockets of squidgy rhubarb and banana contrasted with a spiced and sweet crunchy nut topping. There's also a subtle hint of lemon which is lovely. 

It might all sound a bit random but it absolutely works. I'm ridiculously pleased with this cake and can't wait to make it again. 

Banana and rhubarb streusel cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Rhubarbaria by Mary Prior

For the cake:

5oz softened butter/baking margarine (I used Stork)

7oz soft light brown sugar 

2 large eggs

10oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 cup milk (I used most but not all of it, I think about 1/4 pint - a bit of baking experience required here to gauge it)

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup of rhubarb, chopped into small chunks (I used 2 smallish stalks and forgot to weigh them in ounces here)

1 banana, chopped into small chunks/slices

For the streusel topping:

2oz walnuts, chopped

2oz granulated sugar 

1 tsp melted butter

1tsp ground cinnamon 

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9" round cake tin with greaseproof paper. 

In a large bowl cream together the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Add this mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, one third at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Add the chopped rhubarb, banana, vanilla and lemon juice and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.

Before putting the cake in the oven, combine the streusel toppings in a separate bowl then scatter it on top of the cake mixture.

Bake the cake on the middle shelf of the oven for 50-60 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. I put a layer of greaseproof paper on top of the cake after 50 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the inside of the cake to continue cooking for another 5-10 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire cooling rack.

lemon and blueberry layer cake

Man turned 40 a few weeks ago so a grand cake was required. Like myself he is a lemon cake fan and after running ideas past him we decided on a lemon and blueberry cake sandwiched with with lemon curd and a cream cheese icing. Also a trifle, because all celebratory occasions in life require trifle.

 

The cake is a slight variation on this one I made many years ago, back when I used to put effort into my photography, ha! I think it used to be the most popular post on this blog (also back when I used to check stats.) It's a cute, little cake and I'm surprised it has taken me so long to bake something similar again.

The main change I made is the size as I scaled it up to an 8" layer cake. I think I used a 5 or 6 egg Victoria sponge mix with the zest of two lemons. In hindsight I wish I had added more blueberries to the batter (or not made such a huge cake batter?) but I was concerned about them adding too much moisture to the cake. Looking back at my original recipe I think I had a better ratio.

For my lemon curd filling I used my reliable Delia Smith recipe (documented here), although for whatever reason it didn't seem as punchy as usual which was a bit disappointing.

For the icing I used my personal perfected ratio for cream cheese icing: 2oz butter, 4oz icing sugar, 6oz full fat cream cheese (doubled to cover this size of layer cake.) Beat the icing sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy before adding the cream cheese, then mix until fully incorporated.

I probably added lemon zest as well, but I can't remember. It is a tasty icing with or without adding extra flavours to it.

We also hosted a sausage roll bake off for Man's birthday with our families. It was quite a spread with at least 8 different types of flavours/fillings. I've never seen so many sausage rolls on a (horrible yet practical) breakfast bar.

Although we didn't declare a winner I was pleased to see my sausage rolls were popular. Mine were filled with chorizo, sun dried tomatoes and pork sausage meat. If you haven't tried this combination I can recommend it!

lemon and blackcurrant cake

I've had the lemon and blackcurrant cake from the Clandestine Cake Club book bookmarked since it came out 10 years ago but have always been unable to make it as I couldn't get my hands on any blackcurrants. 

Not anymore! In addition to the "rhubarb empire" we inherited an established blackcurrant and gooseberry bush in our new garden so my lemon and blackcurrant cake dream finally became a reality! (More on the gooseberries another time.)

This cake did not disappoint, it was well worth the wait. Good job, as I had baked it for a family birthday. The sponge itself is almost pudding-like: slightly heavier and juicier in texture compared to a Victoria sponge due to the addition of blackcurrants and ground almonds and also a lemon drizzle soak. 

The blackcurrant coulis/quick jam was also outstanding. What a flavour and colour! I will admit to not quite having enough blackcurrants for it (guilty of eating too many blackcurrants through the week) so I subbed in some fruit from a bag of mixed frozen summer fruits, picking out the blueberries, blackberries and blackcurrants to keep the dark purple colour.

I can see myself making this cake every year which is a lovely thing to look forward to each summer. If you have blackcurrants or can get access to any then I highly recommend trying this recipe. I also recommend serving the cake with fresh berries and cream!

Lemon and blackcurrant(ish) cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Clandestine Cake Club by Lynn Hill

Sponges:

250g Softened butter (I used Stork baking margarine)

250g Caster sugar

4 large eggs

250g Self raising flour

50g Ground almonds

Zest of 1 lemon

100g Blackcurrants 

Lemon soaking syrup:

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp caster sugar

Coulis/jam filling

500g Blackcurrants (I only had 350g of fresh blackcurrants left so topped up the amount with a bag of frozen berries)

Approx. 100g Caster sugar (sweeten to taste)

Preheat the oven to 190C/ 170C Fan/gas mark 5 and grease and line x3 8" (20cm) round cake tins with baking parchment.

Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour along with the lemon zest and ground almonds and mix until fully combined. Gently fold in the blackcurrants. 

Divide the cake batter between the 3 tins and smooth the tops evenly. Bake for approx. 20 minutes or until pale golden, well risen and firm to touch.

While the cake is in the oven, make the lemon syrup. Heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan on the hob until the sugar has dissolved and the mix becomes syrup-y. Remove from the hob and leave to cool then drizzle over/brush onto the cakes a few minutes after they have come out the oven.

For the berry filling, put the blackcurrants and caster sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook until the mixture turns into a thicker, jam-like consistency, roughly 5 minutes. Take off the hob and leave to cool.

Once both the sponges and filling are cool, assemble together by spreading the jam over two sponges then stack them on top of each other, then top with the remaining sponge. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar if you fancy extra flourish.

an alternative lemon cake

Some may stunned to learn that I, the lady with a raging sweet tooth, am with a man who doesn't eat refined sugar or gluten. He follows a keto diet which has led me down a rabbit hole of keto-friendly bakes. We have had great success experimenting with cheesecakes, cookies and brownies but I keep forgetting to photograph any of our bakes.

This lemon cake, made for Man's birthday a few months ago, is my favourite keto cake I've tried so far. The recipe came from the Sugar Free Londoner, a great blog to follow if you also fancy dabbling with low sugar baking. My only changes were not using the coconut butter drizzle topping and baking the cake in a 7" deep round cake tin as despite owning many cake tins I do not possess an 8" bundt tin.

The cake had a good, strong lemon flavour and, as expected, was subtly sweet. Quite often I find keto cakes tend to be on the heavier/denser side as they don't have the natural 'lift' of standard flour, however I thought this cake had a surprisingly light, fluffy texture. I'm assuming it was the combination of coconut flour with the almond flour, rather than just almond flour. The addition of yoghurt also gave the sponge a soft crumb. 

Instead of the coconut butter drizzle topping I made a keto friendly lemon curd (recipe found here, I halved the quantities) and swirled it through some whipped double cream. It made a beautiful birthday cake served with some grated lemon zest and fresh berries.

We have since made the same cake again but with a syrup topping (2 tbsp erythritol, our natural sweetner of choice, mixed with the juice of one lemon) to make it a lemon drizzle cake which also worked brilliantly. It's proving to be a versatile cake and I'm sure we'll continue to experiment with it. I'm thinking some raspberries folded through the batter might be our next variation.

mixed berry and lemon drizzle cake

A fresh, fruity and zingy cake. Perfect for a sunny, socially distanced summer picnic in my mum and dad's garden a few weeks ago.

It's based on this recipe, another classic from BBC Good Food's website which I've baked before. I actually made the original version (with lime) the previous week and thoroughly enjoyed it but then fancied trying it again with lemon instead.

The recipe states to use an 8" square tin but like the previous times I've made it I used a 9" round tin (it holds the equivalent volume) as I find round cakes easier and more pleasing to slice.

Usually I buy fresh berries for baking but this time I used a bag of frozen mixed berries (a mixture of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and red currants, maybe even blackcurrants?!) as that's what I had to hand. This worked really nicely and was also a lot cheaper. I'll definitely do this again.

And for the first time ever the berries didn't all sink to the bottom. I don't know if this had something to do with using frozen over fresh or the consistency of the batter. Regardless, I did a little happy dance when the cake came out the oven.

As far as I'm concerned this is a complete winner of a cake. It's a decent size too for feeding a family, although no judgement from me if you plan to eat it all yourself. 

lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing

I've baked something. It's been a while, for me anyway. I'm still obsessed with my retro juicer so I made some zingy, lemon cupcakes as an excuse to use it.

As a slight variation to my usual lemon cupcakes, I followed the Peggy Porchen method of making a sugar syrup to brush over the freshly baked cupcakes and topped them with a swirl of lemon cream cheese icing.

The syrup gives the cupcakes an extra juicy lemon punch and the addition of cream cheese to the icing calms the sweetness and sharpness. All in all, a damn tasty cupcake... providing you love lemon.

I thought this was the first time I had made lemon cream cheese icing but I see I used it a couple of years ago in a birthday cake for my Dad. It's a good job I have this blog as an archive as my memory is terrible. Looking back at that cake, I'm a bit gutted I didn't consider adding lemon curd as a filling to my cupcakes. That would have taken them to another level of lemony goodness.

My brain feels too scrambled to write anything else vaguely coherent. June has been tiring and thanks to the EU Referendum the UK appears to be in meltdown. Nice.

I have things I want to make and bake, and blogs I want to catch up with, but I'm struggling to motivate myself in the evenings at the moment. All I want to do after work is sit and watch Dance Moms (I am so obsessed, it's embarrassing) X-Files re-runs and Tattoo Fixers (bizarre considering I'm not even a fan of tattoos.) Wimbledon can also be added to the tv list since it started this week. Wayhey!

Lemon cupcake
makes approx. 15 cupcakes

cupcakes:
6oz (175g) caster sugar
6oz (175g) softened butter or margarine
zest of 2 lemons
3 large eggs
6oz (175g) self-raising flour

sugar syrup:
juice of 3 lemons
caster sugar - same weight as the juice of 3 lemons

cream cheese icing:
100g full fat cream cheese icing
100g softened butter
250g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and line two cupcake trays with cases. In a large bowl beat together the margarine, sugar and lemon zest for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from splitting. Add the flour and mix everything together until fully combined. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, until 2/3 full. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen, light golden and spring back when touched. 

Place the lemon juice and caster sugar for the syrup in a saucepan whilst the cupcakes are baking. As soon as the cupcakes come out the oven, bring the syrup to the boil on the hob. Let it simmer until the sugar has full dissolved then take the saucepan off the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Brush the cupcakes with the sugar syrup whilst they're still hot (they absorb the syrup better this way). Once it has soaked in and the cupcakes feel warm, rather than hot, remove the cupcakes from the trays and cool on a wire rack.

For the icing mix together the icing sugar, lemon zest and butter until well combined. Add the cream cheese a little at a time then mix it all on a high speed for a minute or so until the icing is soft and smooth. Either swirl the icing on top of the cooled cupcakes with a spoon/palette knife or pop it into a piping bag. I used a Wilton 1M tip for mine and piped from the centre, swirling outwards.

self saucing lemon pudding

I had 30 minutes to organise a pudding before World's Strongest Man came on tv this evening. I glanced at what was in the fruit bowl, flicked through my ever reliable Mary Berry Baking Bible and arrived at the hot lemon souffle pudding. Strongest Man came on just as the pudding went in the oven so my timing was bang on and the pudding was ready to eat by the end of the programme. Result!

I haven't decided who I'm supporting in Strong Man this year. Hafthor Bjornsson is obviously pretty bloody awesome but it's hard not to root for Zydrunas Savickas or Brian Shaw. Ultimately nobody will ever replace my love for Magnus Samuelsson; he was the best. I still miss the big Swede.

The pudding was a big hit. Dad proclaimed it was "outstanding", my brother who generally isn't fussed with lemon flavours said it was "hellish good" and Mum went for seconds. We easily polished it off between the four of us.

I think this was better than the last lemon pudding I made a few years ago, which I think was a Rachel Allen recipe. It's tart yet sweet and has lovely textures: soft, almost moussey sponge on with a glubby, lemon custard/sauce underneath.

Now I have to tackle the pile of dishes...

Lemon pudding
Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

75g (3oz) softened butter
250g (9oz) caster sugar
3 large eggs, separated
75g (3oz) self raising flour
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
450ml (14 fl oz) milk

Preheat the oven to 190C/170 Fan/Gas 5. Grease a shallow 1.5L (2 1/2pt) ovenproof dish. (I forgot to grease, but it was fine.)

Beat together the sugar and butter in a large bowl. Mix in the egg yolks followed by the flour, lemon rind and lemon juice. Pour in the milk in a steady stream whilst mixing. The mixture will look a bit curdled but don't worry, that's fine. In a separate (clean, grease free!) large bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Carefully fold the eggs into the other mixture using a metal spoon.

Pour the mixture into your ovenproof dish and place in a large roasting tin. Pour in enough boiling water into the roasting tin to come halfway up your dish. It's easier to do this at the oven door with the tray already on the oven shelf, otherwise you risk spilling when carrying it to the oven!

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until golden brown on top. Mine was looking quite golden at about 40 minutes but I wasn't sure it was fully cooked yet so I turned down the temperature a bit for the remaining 20 minutes. I recommend keeping an eye on the oven in case you find yours bakes quickly too. Serve immediately with a dusting of icing sugar.

lemon drizzle poppy seed bundt

At times I think my blog could be renamed What Do You Make Of My Lemon Cake? because I bake them so often. As much as I try to use other flavours, I inevitably return to lemon. It's a firm favourite.

There was a pile of lemons sitting in the fruit bowl last week so I searched the interwebz for baking inspiration and landed on this beautiful bundt recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction. It's packed with lemon flavour and different from my usual lemon cakes in that it also contains poppy seeds and buttermilk.

The buttermilk provides a lovely, creamy balance to the punchy, lemon flavour. I also like that it gives the sponge a soft yet weightier texture, which is perfect for bundt moulds. I should use buttermilk more often.

There were two near disasters with this cake though, the first being the lemon soaking syrup. All the ingredients are weighed using American cup measurements so I got a chance to use my heart shaped cup measures, which are all handily strung together on a loop. Handy for storing, yes, but not so handy when you have just filled 1/2 cup of squeezed lemon juice and the weight of the other of the measures pulls it off the worktop as you pick it up, catapulting lemon juice across your kitchen.

I wasn't best pleased, although it made the kitchen floor smell very fresh.

Luckily I had a spare lemon although I did need to soak up some lemon juice from the floor with a kitchen towel to fill up the cup measure. Before you judge, the floor was clean so I deemed this action acceptable.

Near disaster number two was a pack of writing icing falling out the cupboard and bouncing off the freshly iced cake. Luckily it was a light tube, not a massive bag of flour, so it didn't damage anything. Perhaps I need to clear out that cupboard... 

Other than that, the cake was great. Give the recipe a whirl if you feel like something a little bit fancier than a lemon drizzle loaf. Just don't throw lemon juice around the kitchen like me.

a very lemon-y birthday cake

Gather round lemon cake fans for I have a baked a seriously punchy, sharp and sweet cake. It's not for the faint-hearted.

My Dad is a big fan of lemon bakes so I decided to pack in as much lemon flavour as possible into his birthday cake this year. Taking inspiration from my Peggy Porschen baking book I soaked the sponges in a lemon syrup once they came out the oven which produced the juiciest sponge sandwich cake I've probably ever made. I then filled and iced it with lemon curd and a lemon cream cheese icing. The tang and creaminess of the cream cheese icing helped to balance some of the sharp flavour.

In typical fashion I was baking this very late at night and hadn't really considered that soaking the sponges in hot syrup would slow down the cooling time. Needless to say by the time they had cooled I had no desire to faff about with fancy decoration. Cake sprinkles came to the rescue!

In other news you've probably noticed I've been fiddling around with my blog layout. It took me the best part of Sunday evening to figure out how to make small changes. If anyone else would like to know the html coding for centralising tabs or removing the annoying border around your Blogger images then I highly recommend visiting the techie tips section of Carrie Loves.

I also tried moving the date header below my post titles. It took me ages to find, move and/or delete the relevant bits of coding and when I finally managed it I didn't like it. Typical! To be honest I'm still unsure whether I like my date and post titles in the centre, but I'm going to roll with it for a while. 

A very lemon-y lemon cake

sponges:
8oz/ 225g caster sugar
8oz/ 225g softened butter
 zest of 2 lemons
4 eggs (large)

8oz/ 225g self raising flour

lemon syrup:
juice of 2 lemons
100g caster sugar

filling and icing:
300g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon
50g softened butter
125g cream cheese

lemon curd - good quality shop bought or this recipe

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line two 8 inch round cake tins. Beat together the sugar, butter and lemon zest for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition, and add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to prevent the cake mix from curdling. Tip in the rest of the flour and mix until fully combined. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 25-30 minutes until golden, risen and firm to touch.

For the syrup, bring the lemon juice and sugar to a boil in a saucepan and simmer for a minute until all the sugar has dissolved. Brush this hot syrup mixture over the sponges 10 minutes after they've come out the oven. Leave the sponges until they're barely warm before turning them out their tins to finish cooling.

Beat together the icing sugar, cream cheese and lemon zest for a couple of minutes until fluffy and smooth. Spread half of the icing onto one cake along with a generous layer of lemon curd and sandwich it togther with the other sponge. Ice the top with the remaining icing and decorate with sprinkles.

lemon curd swiss roll

For Father's Day last weekend Dad requested something lemon-y. I sense people may groan at the amount of lemon bakes I produce on this blog, but hey, my family *loves* lemon. Rather than bake my fail safe lemon drizzle I thought I'd go for something slightly different, a swiss roll.

A swiss roll filled with homemade lemon curd. Mmmmmmm.

Every time I make a fruit curd I think "I should make curd more often!" It's so easy and tastes so much better than shop bought which for some reason I always seem to forget. It's just taking the time for that extra little step in baking. I'd like to try making pineapple curd next to fully embrace summer flavours.

I had forgotten how wonderfully airy fatless sponges were. This swiss roll was so light! I loved the contrast of the crunchy, sugary crust with the fluffy sponge and tangy, sweet curd filling. 

Admittedly my swiss roll isn't the most technically proficient. I rolled mine a bit slack which caused a massive, unsightly crack. I sneakily hid this on the underside so all was ok. I also added so much curd that it squidged out everywhere, but then again I don't think that's a bad thing. Nobody likes a stingey filling.

I can happily report that Dad was delighted with his Father's Day swiss roll and we polished it off within two days. It's worth noting that swiss rolls are best eaten on the day of making as it did lose its freshness the following day (although still perfectly edible.) If there are a few of you eating I'm sure this won't be a problem!

Swiss roll with homemade lemon curd

Swiss roll recipe by Mary Berry. Lemon curd recipe by Delia Smith. Those ladies are the best.

For the lemon curd:

grated rind and juice of 1 large, juicy lemon 

75g (3oz) caster sugar

2 large eggs

50g (2oz) butter (I used slightly salted)

 

Place the grated lemon rind and sugar in a heatproof bowl. In another bowl whisk together the lemon juice and eggs then pour this mixture over the sugar. Add the butter cut into small pieces and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until thickened (about 20 minutes) and leave to cool whilst making the swiss roll.

For the swiss roll:

3 large eggs

75g (3oz) caster sugar

75g (3oz) self-raising flour
grated rind of 1 small lemon

Preheat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/Gas 7 and line a 28 x 18cm (11 x 7 inch) tin with baking parchment. Whisk the lemon zest, eggs and sugar until the mixture increases in size and the whisk leaves a smooth trail when lifted. This takes a good 3-5 minutes and it's best to put your whisk at its highest/fastest setting as you want to add as much air into the mixture as possible. Sift in the flour and very carefully fold it into the mixture, taking great care not to knock out all the lovely air you just beat into it. Once incorporated, pour the mixture into the tray, tipping it gently from side to side to evenly spread the mixture into corners and level out. Don't be tempted to spread it with a knife! 

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10 minutes or until the surface is golden and the sides come away from the edges of the tin. While the cake is in the oven, unroll a piece of baking parchment slightly larger than the tin onto a work surface and sprinkle liberally with caster sugar. Once the swiss roll is cooked, invert it straight onto the sugared surface and quickly loosen and remove the parchment from the bottom of the cake. Trim the edges of the sponge (if needed) and mark a score about an inch in from one of the shorter ends (but don't cut right through) as it will help to roll up the cake.

Leave to cool slightly before spreading with curd then roll up the cake firmly from the scored end. Don't try and answer the phone whilst doing this like I did. It wasn't a good idea, you need both hands! Eat whilst fresh and fluffy :)

blueberry and lemon layer cake

This felt like a purely selfish bake. I had no reason to bake a triple layer cake, which I usually feel deserves an "occasion", I just really wanted one.

It was only 6 inches in diameter though. A satisfying size and height of cake without being massive.

I based this cake on a tasty cake I ate in Edinburgh earlier in the year and also one I bookmarked on Sweetapolita ages ago. I loved the look and flavour of a lemon layer sandwiched between blueberry studded layers. Although my layering isn't as distinct as Sweetapolita's I still think it makes an attractive cake.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use lemon curd or blueberry jam with my lemon butter icing between the layers. In the end I went with both: jam between the bottom and middle layer and curd between the middle and top. They both offer something different flavour wise so I think that was a good choice.

I also toyed with the idea of going for a smooth icing coverage to finish the cake. After a few attempts I came to the conclusion that I don't own a large enough palette knife, I don't have the patience (or skill?) required and ultimately I don't particularly care! I actually really like textured icing. It looks homely and inviting and takes me less time to do therefore I get to eat cake quicker. And that's the most important thing, right?

Flavour wise this cake is a real sharp, sweet and tart sensation for the taste buds. Mum even declared "this is one of the best cakes you've made in a while". I'll take that compliment! I must admit I prefer sweet and sour flavour combinations to sweet and salty, although I'm expecting people may throw their cooking utensils at me for admitting that. Don't get me wrong, salted caramel is good, but I find it hard to go past a sharp and sweet lemon bake.

Now if you excuse me I'm going to go and scream into a pillow. It has been one of those days...

Blueberry and lemon layer cake
I baked this a couple of weeks ago and stupidly didn't write anything down so my memory of this is a bit sketchy. I think this is what I used though!

200g caster sugar
200g stork margarine (or butter)
3 large eggs
200g self raising flour
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp milk (I think!)
2 small packets of blueberries (I think they were about 150g each)

icing and filling:
450g icing sugar
150g butter (I use slightly salted)
lemon juice to taste
lemon curd
blueberry jam

Preheat the oven to 180C/170 fan/Gas 4. Grease and line three 6 inch round cake tins. Beat together the sugar and margarine/butter for 5 minutes until pale, light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition. Sift in the flour and add the lemon zest and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and milk. Mix until everything is smooth and fully combined. Divide the mixture between the three tins. Coat a packet of the blueberries in a small amount of flour (to stop them sinking in the mix) and lightly press the blueberries into the surface of two of the cake mixes. I can't remember if I used the whole blueberry packet, but I basically just pressed in enough to roughly cover the surface. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes until risen, golden, springy to touch and the edges of the cake have come away from the tin. I only have two tins so the plain lemon layer was baked separately afterwards. If I remember correctly, I think the blueberry sponges took longer to bake, possibly up to 30 minutes, probably due to the addition of the blueberries to the mixture. Once cooked, leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar, butter and enough lemon juice to achieve a nice spreadable consistency. Use to sandwich between the cakes (along with the jam and/or curd!) and coat the top and outside of the cake. Decorate your cake with any remaining blueberries.
 

lemon and white chocolate cake

There's little I love more in life than lemon flavours and white chocolate. And custard creams. And Henry Cavill. I'm already veering off track, sorry.

When I saw Kate's Easter white chocolate and lemon curd cake I instantly knew I had to make a similar cake as soon as possible. I couldn't understand why I had never combined two of my favourite flavours in a cake.

And what a light and fluffy, zingy yet sweet cake it produced! The only minor disappointment was the icing and I think it was due to the choice of white chocolate. I used Lindt Lindor which I'm positive I've used before and had excellent results with, but when I melted this particular block it seemed really runny and almost water-y, making a very soft icing which never firmed up. It just didn't behave the way I expected it to. Perhaps I picked up a different type of Lindt chocolate without really noticing?

Flavour wise it was very sweet which was to be expected (it was white chocolate after all!) and contrasted well with the zingy lemon curd and sponge, but I felt the white chocolate flavour itself didn't come through particularly strong.

Ooh look at that layer of lemon curd peeking through in the filling! I thought I was pretty generous with it at the time but I could have easily put in more. The tang of the curd against the sweet icing was so good!

Despite my (only very slight) disappointment with the icing this was a popular cake and I think it tasted even better on the second day. I can't comment how well it would taste on a third day as it didn't last that long. If you do have cakes lying around your house that long you must have serious willpower!

white chocolate and lemon cake

225g caster sugar

225g Stork margarine (or butter)

4 eggs

225g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

filling and icing:

1 jar lemon curd (I used Tesco's finest which was lovely but obviously home made is even better)

100g white chocolate, melted

175g butter, softened (I used slightly salted)

175g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to Gas 5/190C and grease and line two 20cm round tins. Beat together the butter and sugar for roughly 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs individually, mixing well after each addition. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl then add to the cake mixture. Add the lemon zest, 1 tbsp of juice and two 2tbsp of milk and mix until everything is fully combined. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes until risen, golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing, put the white chocolate into a bowl and melt in short bursts in the microwave (or melt it in a bowl sitting above a small pan of simmering water, whichever method you prefer). Leave to cool and then add to the icing sugar and butter. Mix everything together for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy.

Fill the cake with a few dollops of the icing and a good spread of lemon curd. Use the remaining icing to coat the top and sides.

dairy free lemon drizzle traybake

Since discovering one of my nephews is dairy intolerant I have been making an effort to experiment with dairy free baking. Lemon drizzle cake is a family favourite so it was the first recipe I wanted to play with.

For this cake I used Mary Berry's lemon drizzle traybake recipe, substituting the softened butter for Vitalite dairy free margarine and the milk for soya milk.

The only noticeable difference through using a dairy free margarine was the texture. The batter was looser and it produced a very soft, moist cake with a smooth surface rather than the hard sugary top you usually get with a lemon drizzle. Flavour wise it was excellent and received thumbs up from everyone. I don't think anybody would have noticed it was dairy free had I not pointed it out.

If anyone else is new to dairy free baking (or gluten free baking) I highly recommend visiting iced gem bakes. I found her breakdown of dairy free margarines really useful.