SLIDER

lemon drizzle cake



Last month my signed copy of Flour and Stone arrived, the new book by Nadine Ingram. A few years ago some of Nadine's recipes featured in an issue of Gourmet Traveller. I made the lemon dream cake, the chocolate manjari cake and a version of her famous pannacotta lamingtons which I found online. All the cakes were delicious and I was keen to try some more.



I've read the book from cover to cover and have bookmarked quite a few recipes but I decided to go with a classic, the lemon drizzle cake. One of my work colleagues is gluten intolerant and as the lemon drizzle cake recipe contains only a small amount of flour, I felt fairly confident I'd be able to make the cake gluten free. I decided to use some of the polenta flour I had on hand and used that instead of the flour.




The original recipe has quantities for 22 cm and 28 cm cakes but I scaled the recipe back to fit my handy dandy 17cm tin. Normally if I halve a 22cm cake recipe it works perfectly but the cake was too moist and only just held together. I remade the cake using regular flour and increased the quantity a little and it worked perfectly. The book's temperatures are for a fan forced oven so I increased my oven temperature by 10-20°C. It changed the bake time though. My cake was ready in 55 minutes unlike the 1 hour 15 minutes suggested in the book.




The cake came out a lovely golden brown and as soon as it was cool I iced the cake and topped it with some home made candied lemon rind. The cake is lovely and moist and equal parts buttery and lemony and it was a definite winner at work.


Here's the recipe for you adapted from the lemon drizzle cake recipe from Flour and Stone. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
90g ground almonds
40g polenta or plain flour
1½ tsp grated lemon rind
25mls lemon juice


Icing
125g icing sugar
25mls lemon juice (about half a lemon)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17cm cake tin with baking paper.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually, scraping the butter mix down the sides to ensure all is incorporated. Add the almonds, the lemon zest and the juice. Add the flour to the butter and eggs and mix a few times until the batter is combined.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes to one hour until the cake springs back when touched. When cooked, take out of the oven and allow the cake to cool completely on a rack.

If the cake isn’t level you might have to trim the top. When cold, turn the cake upside down and remove the lining paper. The bottom of the cake is now the top. 

Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice gradually until a thin stream of icing can pour off your spoon to drizzle. Spoon 3 spoonful’s of icing over the top of the cake and use the spoon to drag the icing to the edge of the cake. The icing will cover the cake and drizzle naturally. Allow the cake to set for at least 4 hours before serving.





The second time I made the cake I was time poor so instead of carefully mixing the ingredients in a stand mixer I put everything in the food processor and it worked like a charm! 



See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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8 comments

  1. So delighted to see your first posting for the Flour and Stone cookbook. I have been waiting for the first recipe to arrive.
    Just wondering if the quantities in your post are for the 22 cm tin or 17 cm tin? If for 17cm, what are the percentages I need to scale up for the 22cm and 28 cm tins?
    Can't wait to make the cake.
    Regards,
    Angela

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    1. Hi Angela, the recipe makes a 17cm cake. Just double everything to make a 22cm cake and treble it for the 26cm cake. You might need to bake the cake for 10-15 more minutes. The 2nd time I made it in my food processor and it worked really well so next time I make it, I'll use the food processor. The cake recipe is very similar to an Ottolenghi recipe I use so I knew it would work with a bit more flour in the batter. I'm planning to adapt another recipe this coming week end. J

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  2. You are amazing with your very quick and always helpful replies. Thank you.
    When you say you added a bit more flour, is that the amount written in the recipe, or you simply added more to the 90g ground almonds and 40g polenta/plain flour?
    I love mixing cheesecake batter, and pastry in a food processor but haven't done many cake mixtures. My food processor is a bit of a big monster and i dislike immensely washing it up. So will probably stick to a mixer just because of the wash-up factor.
    Unfortunately I made a large lemon cake last week so will have to offload the frozen cake as soon as possible so as to give this one a go.
    Thanks again,
    Angela

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    Replies
    1. Hi Angela, the recipe published is the adapted one. The original recipe when halved only used 25g of flour. The cake when baked, whilst absolutely delicious, only just held together and crumbled a bit when cut. I thought an extra spoonful of flour would help hold everything together. I hope that helps. J

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  3. Lightning fast response!! Thank you.
    Yes 25 grams does seem a small amount so will follow your lead. Did some searching on the net and the Lemon Drizzle Cake seems to be a signature dish of Flour and Stone.... along with so many other of her baked goods. The book must be a treasure trove.
    Your work colleagues will be in for some treats!
    Angela

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  4. If treats don't appear on Monday, questions are asked!

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  5. Hi,
    Angela here again. I tried to leave a comment on today's Lamington Cupcake post but for some reason the comment option wasn't showing. I assume it is something to do with my computer. I am not technological so can't work out what the problem could be.
    Anyway just wanted to say I loved today's post ( I am a big lamington fan) and also your commitment to getting things baked so no one is disappointed. Amazing.
    I also wanted to tell you that I bought the Flour & Stone cookbook after I firstly borrowed it from the library. There were just too many things I wanted to bake so had to buy it. So pleased I have it.
    Can you give me some very brief critiques of the items you have baked so far? Are the Lemon Dream cake & Manjari Chocolate Cake must-bake ones? Is the Lemon Drizzle cake so good to be a signature dish of Nadine Ingram? I do value your critiques. You seem a far, far better baker and definitely more adventurous than I am.
    I plan to make the plum & ricotta muffins as soon as I clear my freezer a little. I adore plums and they seem so interesting ...& healthy. Also very taken by the Blackberry Forest for a special occasion.
    As aways, thank you.
    Angela

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  6. Hi Angela,

    I've also bookmarked a few recipes from the Flour and Stone cook book. Ginger Fluff is next. I made it on Saturday and it stuck to the tin like crazy so I'll remake it this weekend using a different tin.

    The lemon drizzle cake is simple to make, moist and delicious. Its probably a good place to start. The lemon dream is more of a showstopper and has quite a few steps but it's a lovely cake. It's been quite a while since I made the Chocolate Manjari Cake so I can't remember how it tasted. I'm planning to make the Chocolate hazelnut cake for this year's Passover week.

    Hoping that helps. Just had a bit more of that lamington - very delicious!

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