Friday, February 8, 2013

Recipe as promised!

This is the lemon cake I made yesterday and promised I would give you the recipe today.  The cake above was Nigella Lawson's Lemon-Syrup Loaf cake.  The pound cake style lemon cake is very popular in England and I originally found a recipe by Lucy over at Attic24  about a year ago or so and it sounded so yummy.   I went to the trouble and time of converting it from metric equivalents and baked it. I was over the moon about it......it was SO delicious!  Well, I've been cleaning my bookshelves and moving all my cookbooks into the kitchen and ran across my Nigella cookbook, How To Be A Domestic Goddess.  Alright,  stop laughing, I know I'm a far cry from her in looks and cooking skills but a girl can try!  Anyway, I "assumed" Nigella's recipe would be better as she's a professional and would have THE BEST recipe for English Lemon Cake........WRONG!  When I bit into it last night it was dry and not anything like Lucy's cake!  I was disappointed to say the least!  Mind you, it's not awful and if I had never made Lucy's recipe 
I would probably think it was quite tasty as it's definitely got the lemon going on.   But Lucy's cake was moist and fell apart with as she would say..."lemony goodness"!  So, I will not be buying anymore cookbooks as I have discovered that most of my "bestest" recipes ever are from regular people cooking in their own kitchens for their own families!  I will not bother giving you the Nigella recipe at all.....here's Lucy's recipe and I know you'll love it! 



The American version of the famous English Lemon Drizzle Cake
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I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer for mixing this up.  It makes one loaf pan that I lined with parchment paper.  I baked it for 30 minutes or until done at 350 degrees.
1/2 C butter (really soft)  (1 stick)
3/4 C self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
the rind of one lemon grated (I use a micro plane and just the yellow skin...the white is bitter)
1/2 C superfine sugar
2 eggs
3-6 T milk

After whipping the butter, I added everything else and whipped it for no more than 3 minutes and much less really.  I wanted it incorporated well but also whipped it to get the eggs nice and fluffy. I poured it into my loaf pan and baked it for 30 minutes although it said 30-40 mine looked great at 30.  I had previously mixed up the syrup to pour on top which is merely the juice of 1 lemon mixed with 1/2 C superfine or granulated for the "frosting".  I looked at so many recipes and not a one of them were the same! LOL!
I used the superfine also for my frosting.  I just mixed it with a fork in a small bowl and poured it directly over the cake after it came out of the oven while it was still hot.  Some recipes I looked at later said you should poke holes in the top before pouring the frosting mixture on top but I didn't do that but I might next time.  You then let it cool and I took it out later and sliced it like pound cake


I have posted this in the past but now that I have my RECIPE page at the top of the blog they will be handier for you and for me.  BTW, Nigella's recipe was a lot more involved too.....go figure!
Have a great Friday night!
P.S.  And yes, I do poke holes in the cake when it comes out of the oven and pour the frosting slowly onto the top.  I then let it cool completely in the pan then take it out and leave the parchment paper on it and store it in an airtight container.  YUMMO!  I must have needed my vitamin C yesterday because I had orange chicken for supper and lemon cake with a cup of orange spice tea last night! LOL!


7 comments:

  1. Sam
    You are so funny! I'd say you definitely got your Vit C fix, not to mention how yummy it all sounded

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  2. Lemon is my favourite flavour for cakes and yes that pound style is very popular over here. I have numerous cookbooks also but I find my best recipes are the ones scribbled down on pieces of paper and stuck round the kitchen, I do go back to two cooks for recipes from their books...Mary Berry and Rachel Allen, the first English and the second Irish, I find their recipes work everytime. Can I ask how you converted the recipe or where as I have a couple of American reicpes I'd like to convert to try out.

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  3. I like lemon cakes too! I hoe Nitty is getting all better. Chance does better on Lamb and Rice based dog food..and I cook him up extra vegetables:)

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  4. Who needs Nigella?! Yay for Lucy!! :D

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  5. Why are some recipes so lengthy and time consuming? I find the simplest ones are the best and those are the ones I will make time and time again. I do love lemon! Best wishes, Tammy

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  6. I'm always on the lookout for good cake recipes. I'll have to pin this so I don't lose it!

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