It’s been a while, mainly because my oven broke down. I was whipping up a traybake cake and had put the oven on to warm up whilst I was mixing. When I looked at it, 30 minutes later, it hadn’t managed to reach 100˚F yet-what a disaster! Nothing I did was making it work.
At least I rescued most of my batter by baking it in batches in my air fryer, but that isn’t something that I wanted to do regularly. So, no oven (the cooktop still worked) meant no baking, and the problem of finding a repairer for this sort of thing in the back of beyond. It took a while but we found someone, who identified the problem (the controller), ordered a new part and had it repaired in just a couple of days. We were told that, at its age (a whole 8 years old!) we were lucky that it had lasted so long! Am I alone in thinking that an appliance that cost over $1000 should last a little longer than 8 years? Anyway, two thumbs up for our repairer guy, who did a great job, and ‘yah, boo sucks’ to Frigidaire, who apparently make crap with a short shelf-life and sell it for big bucks. Not that any of the other big manufacturers are any better, apparently, according to our repairer, who sees the same thing with all of them. Oh well, rant over, at least I’m back in bake mode, for as long as it lasts this time.
I’d found a bag of blueberries in the freezer. I’d obviously bought them for something (can’t remember what) but the fruit was fine and still in date. I thought I’d celebrate having a working oven by baking a Blueberry-Lemon Loaf.
½ cup/ 120 ml milk*
1 tbsp lemon zest **
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups/260 g all-purpose flour (plus 1 tsp for flouring fruit)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
1 cup/140 g fresh or frozen blueberries (do not defrost if frozen)
1 stick/½ cup/115g unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1¼ cups/250g granulated sugar
*I used 2% milk ** not essential, provides a stronger lemon flavour but can be made without.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4
Grease a suitable loaf tin -5 x 9 inch preferable. I used my pyrex glass loaf pan.
Add the lemon juice and zest (if using) to the milk and stir, then set aside for at least 10 minutes. The milk will curdle, this is fine.
Place the flour (2 cups), soda and salt into a bowl and whisk to mix well. Set aside.
Toss the blueberries in 1 tsp flour and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each addition. If the mixture looks like it is curdling, add 1 tbsp of the flour mixture.
Beat in ⅓ of the flour mixture, then add half of the milk/lemon mix. Repeat with flour, then the rest of the liquid, finishing with flour. Mix well after each addition.
Add the floured blueberries and fold in. Transfer to the prepared loaf dish and smooth the top.
Bake for 50 -60 minutes, or so, in the centre of the preheated oven. Loaf is finished when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before removing and completing cooling on a rack.
Make a simple glace icing, with icing sugar and lemon juice, to drizzle over the cake when cool.
A nice light cake with a lemony crumb and a fruity finish. I was very pleased to have got back into the baking groove with this one.
I think that I mentioned that I was trying to improve my icing techniques and, believe me, they can take some improving. I’ve always liked the look of those ‘drip’ cakes, with the perfect ring of drips running down the length of the cake, and this seemed like a good chance to have a go. Also I’d decided that it wasn’t going to be a chocolate cake for this birthday, and I’d collected a recipe some time ago that used evaporated milk in the sponge-weird but interesting. In the end, as is my wont, I used a variety of things from different places to make my own individual slant on a cake. Also Youtube videos on cake icing helped a lot, too!
The recipe called for 2 x 9″ cake tins-I only have one, a springform tin. I didn’t want to wait to bake the second layer, nor to have to buy a second tin, but I do have three identical 8″ loose-bottomed tins. A 9″ tin is actually 25% larger than an 8″ tin (it surprised me to know that!) so I reckoned that three 8″ tins would make three slightly thinner layers to the two 9″ cakes. As the 9″ cakes were supposed to be torted (apparently the posh way of saying ‘cut in half, horizontally’!’), I thought that I could end up with a 3-layer cake instead of the 4-layer cake in the recipe. It was a plan.
Cake
1 cup/250 g/8 oz/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp (plus extra to grease the pan)
3¾ cup/312 g/11 oz self-raising flour
3 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Zest of 1 large lemon
2 cups/500 g/16 oz granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1¼ cups/310 ml/10 fl oz evaporated milk
Heat the oven to 325˚F/160˚C/Gas 3
Grease and line 2 x 9” or 3 x 8” cake tins. Set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Use a balloon whisk to ensure well-mixed. Set aside.
Zest the lemon, set aside.
Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
Beating butter and sugarButter and sugar beatenAfter adding the eggs and lemon zest
Reduce the mixer speed to medium and then add eggs, one at a time, beating to ensure each is fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla extract. Fold in the lemon zest.
adding flour and evaporated milkFinished batterReady to bake
Fold in the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the evaporated milk.
Transfer to the prepared tins. Bake until a skewer comes out clean 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool, in the tin on a rack, for 10 minutes, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.
I was making the cakes well in advance of the birthday itself, actually 5 days beforehand, so as to not be rushed. My research on-line suggested that freezing the cakes would be beneficial to the outcome of the frosting procedure, not to mention meaning that I wouldn’t need to crack on and ice them, so I decided to try it out. The secret, it seems, is to wrap the cakes and freeze them whilst they are still warm from the oven, i.e. just as they are tipped out of the tins. A good layer of plastic wrap was applied to each cake and they were placed, individually, on the shelves of the freezer. It’s important not to stack the cakes until they are frozen, though.
The cakes would be filled with a raspberry compote and with lemon buttercream, which would also be used to ice the outside. I made these up on the day before I intended to do the icing.
Raspberry Compote
1 pkt/300 g/10.6 oz frozen
⅓-½ cup/85-125 g/2.6-4 oz granulated sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch (cornflour)
A small amount of cold water
Place the frozen berries and sugar into a small saucepan and slowly simmer over low heat until soft. Mix the cornstarch with a little water until smooth. If you do not mind seeds in your compote, then add the cornstarch/water mix to the berry mixture and stir well until thickened.
Berries and sugarI’m not fond of seeds in mySeeds removed from compote
I’m not fond of seeds in my cakes, so I decided to sieve the softened fruit through a sieve, pushing the puree through with a wooden spoon and thus catching most of the seeds. I rinsed out the pan, to ensure that any residual seeds were removed, before returning the compote to simmer, then added the cornstarch to thicken it, as above. The finished compote was stored in the fridge until needed.
Lemon American Buttercream
Apparently, what I’ve always just thought of as buttercream, made with butter and icing sugar, is also known as American buttercream. It seems a bit bigheaded of the Americans to lay claim to something that everyone else uses as well. I can’t see anything particularly American about it!
340 g/12 oz/ roughly 2½ sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
567 g/20 oz icing (powdered/confectioner’s) sugar
142 g/5 oz whipping (heavy, double) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt
Few drops yellow food colouring (optional)
Beat the butter until smooth and light.Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, whilst mixing on low speed. Add the salt, vanilla, lemon extract (if using), lemon juice and cream. Beat on high speed, 2-3 minutes, until smooth and fluffy. If liked, add a few drops of yellow food colouring.
Beating butter and sugarFinished lemon buttercream
Beat on low for an additional 15 minutes to remove air bubbles.
I made my buttercream on the day before I was going to use it, so stored it, covered, in the fridge. Before using it I brought it to room temperature and beat it, for 2-3 minutes, with my hand electric mixer. I found it to be still a little stiff, so zapped it in the microwave for 10 seconds, which loosened it perfectly for beating and spreading, without melting it.
American buttercream is stable at room temperature for a few hours. It can be stored refrigerated, covered, for a week of so, or will freeze in an airtight container for several months.
Assembling the Cake
If frozen, remove the cakes from the freezer, keep them in the plastic film and allow to defrost on wire racks until room temperature, about 3 hours. remove the film.
If using 9” cakes, torte each cake (i.e. cut horizontally through the centre) to end up with four layers. If using 8” cakes, this will not be necessary. If preferred/needed, trim the cakes to remove domes or the caramelized outer layer (I didn’t).
If liked, spray the top and bottom surface of the bottom layer with sugar syrup (a 1:1 solution of sugar in water) to ensure moistness. Glue the cake layer to a cake board or place using a blob of buttercream.
Place a thin layer of buttercream on the cake layer. Using an icing bag fitted with a large nozzle, pipe a ‘dam’ of buttercream around the edge of the layer, Fill the dam with raspberry puree. Spray the next layer with sugar syrup, if using, then place this on the lower level, ensuring that the cake is centred correctly. Continue to fill and add layers, finishing with the top layer. A 9” cake will have 4 thinner layers, the 8” cake will have 3 thicker layers.
Base layer glued to cake boardFrosting layer and ‘dam’Raspberry compote addedLayer 2 addedfrosting and filling addedAll three layers in place
Using an offset spatula, add a thin layer of buttercream to the sides and top of the cake, to seal the layers and act as a crumb coat. Place the cake in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to settle the cake and set the crumb coat.
Sealing layers and crumb coatTop coated
When set, remove the cold cake from the refrigerator and ice the sides and top of the cake with buttercream icing, smoothing as much as possible. Replace the cake in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes for the icing to set, before adding the drip coat.
I probably could have done with just a bit more icing for this cake, and if doing a 9″ cake I’d recommend 1.5 times the amount, as a minimum, even double quantities if you like a thick frosting. In this case I wasn’t too worried about the ‘bare’ edges to the top as I was planning a ganache drip that would cover this.
Chocolate Ganache Drip
Ideally, white chocolate ganache should be at a ratio of at least 3:1 chocolate to cream.
100g bar good quality white chocolate (I used Lindt)
About 35 ml whipping cream (heavy cream, double cream) at least 30% fat content
Food colouring (if liked)
Break the chocolate into very small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl.
Heat the cream to simmer but do not boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow to sit a minute or so, then stir. If needed, microwave the chocolate cream mix in 10 second bursts until a smooth thick liquid is obtained. Add colouring, if wanted. Allow to cool to almost room temperature.
Take the cake from the fridge. The icing needs to be cold for the drip to work.
Ideally, use a disposable icing bag or a ziplock bag. Fill the bag with the ganache and then clip a tiny hole in the point (you can use a small icing nozzle if preferred). Add ganache around the top edge of the cake, allowing drips to form and run down at random intervals. When the edge if complete, use the remainder to pipe over the top surface of the cake. If needed, use an icing spatula to completely smooth out the ganache top. Decorate as liked if using sprinkles or similar, or allow to set in the refrigerator if using piped decorations, etc. The ganache does not harden completely so items can be embedded after the setting period.
I was pretty pleased with my first effort. I’d chosen to colour my white chocolate ganache with a little red food colouring, to suggest the raspberry filling and to contrast with the yellow buttercream. I think my ganache could have been just a tad more liquid to drip more elegantly but, not surprisingly, I probably chose the harder of the ganaches to get right: ones made with dark chocolate are apparently easier to work with. If available, a little additional cocoa butter can help the fluidity of white chocolate ganache. So far as final decorations were concerned, I decided to just add a sprinkling of some bright red sugar crystals to the ganache whilst it was still quite liquid. If I’d had remaining buttercream, I’d have piped a border around the base of the cake and maybe some other piped decorations, too.
It’s a very filling cake but a pretty tasty one too. It’s best removed from the fridge for a couple of hours before serving, to allow the buttercream to come to room temperature.
I found this recipe on line, and its from the UK so includes things that we don’t find here, well at least not here in rural Nova Scotia. Big city people might be able to hunt down muscovado sugar! Still, I thought that I could make it work anyway and I do like ginger cake. It was also stuffed with fruit, which sounded almost healthy!
I’ve been baking some ‘cut-and-come again’ cakes recently, as a lunch option. I’ve made a couple of fruit-laden banana loaves that have gone down well, but I felt like a change, and who doesn’t like ginger cake? Interestingly, this has quite a mild ginger flavour, due to the use of grated root ginger rather than ground ginger, although I did decide to spice mine up a bit with a little addition of ground ginger, and it worked nicely, without overwhelming the lemon flavour. Incidentally, many comments on line were decrying the amount of prep time needed to grate ginger, chop dates, zest lemon and chop apple-I had a trick or two there to reduce the impact.
As I said, its a UK recipe and given entirely in grams. It also uses self-raising flour-I get mine from the Bulk Barn and it works very well.
Lemon Ginger Cake
200 g dried chopped dates*
200 g butter, cubed**
300 g soft brown sugar***
2 eggs
50 g minced root ginger****
Grated zest of 1 lemon
200 g self-raising flour
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into pea-sized pieces (about 250 g fruit)*****
½ tsp ground ginger******
*recipe states stoned dates, but using this pre-chopped form saves a lot of chopping.
**I used unsalted butter
***recipe states dark muscovado sugar
****recipe states fresh, grated, root ginger or frozen.
*****recipe states Bramley apple
******my addition to original recipe, to give an extra ginger ‘zing’
Preheat the oven to 325˚F/ 310 ˚F convection/160˚C/140 ˚C fan/Gas 3.
Grease a 20 cm/8 inch cake tin and line the base with parchment paper (I used a springform tin).
Place the dates in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Mine were dried, chopped dates, so already sized for the cake. Leave them to soak whilst prepping the next stage.
Heat the butter in a large saucepan until melted. Note that all of the prep will be in this pan, so make sure to choose a good-sized one. Remove from the heat and add the sugar. Stir until well-mixed. I did find that my hand electric mixer helped the butter and sugar to incorporate well-this might be a function of using soft brown sugar instead of muscovado. Allow to cool slightly.
Melting the butterSugar beaten in
The recipe said to use grated fresh ginger, which I think would be a pain to grate. Alternatively, defrosted frozen grated ginger would be an option, but I’ve never seen it here. I do, however, usually have a jar of minced ginger in the fridge, and so substituted this.
From left: SR flour with ground ginger; minced ginger; brown sugarZest of 1 lemon
Beat in the eggs, minced ginger and lemon zest.
Drain the dates, chop more if needed (mine did not need further chopping) and add to the pan, stirring well.
Draining datesPeeling applesPea-sized piecesSugar/butter mix with fruits, flour and eggs added
Mix the ground ginger with the flour, then stir this into the mixture in the pan. Add the apple pieces.
Ready to bake
Spoon into the prepared tin, place the tin on a baking sheet (to stop the base from browning too much). Then bake for about 1¼ hours until well-risen. A toothpick will come out with a few moist crumbs adhering.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
Cooling in the tinCooled cakeCooled cake
The recipe suggests a drizzle of melted white chocolate, candied fruits and crystallized sugar to decorate, but I made a lemon glace icing, using the juice from the lemon and a little icing sugar, and this was the perfect addition to this moist and fruity cake.
Drizzled cake
The cake was very moist from the start, but became more so with storage in an air-tight container. it did last for several days and was still very tasty at the end of that period. The recipe suggests that it would store for up to a week, or would freeze, undecorated. I’d definitely make this one again.
Dates and apple pieces are evident in the cake textureA very moist and tasty cake
I thought I’d move slightly out of my comfort zone today, taste-wise that is. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not all that keen on cinnamon. I guess I don’t mind a little, but that goes a long way in my book. One of the things I really noticed, when moving to North America, was the number of cinnamon-flavoured items, and that the cinnamon-flavouring was usually very strong-too strong for me. Therefore I have shied away for ‘cinnamon’ in a cake. Time, maybe, to remedy that.
I was leafing through one of my old recipe books that I brought with me from the UK a few days ago. Now, I might have bought this book in the UK but it is actually Australian. It’s been very useful over the years for the tables of conversions in the back-cups to weights, Fahrenheit to Celsius, names of ingredients, etc. What I haven’t done is bake many of the recipes. Well, I came across a simple-looking cake, called Cinnamon Honey Cake- a single layer cake, topped with lemon buttercream. Now that sounded not too bad, especially as it specified only 1 tsp of cinnamon in the mix.
The Recipe:
Cake
50 g/¼ cup soft brown sugar
4 tbsp/60 ml honey
1 egg
125 g/1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
60 g butter, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
80 ml/⅓ cup milk
Note that this makes one layer. For a two-layer cake, double the recipe or make it twice.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F /180˚C/Gas 4. Grease and line a 20 cm/8 in cake tin
Now the recipe suggests just putting all of the ingredients into a bowl and mixing it up, so I did.
I had helped the butter soften by trying a trick I’d found on line. I filled a jug with boiling water, left it for a minute or so then decanted the water and popped in my stick of butter, and it worked!
However, even with this trick it took forever for the butter to be incorporated into the batter. Maybe it would be better to cream the butter and sugar first.
Finally incorporated!
The batter is quite sloppy. Transfer to the prepared tin, smooth the top and place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes.
I checked my cake after about 25 minutes and was glad I did because it looked done. A skewer inserted into the centre came out clean. It had risen, but not greatly so. The 8 in tin I used was a little larger than the 20 cm tin specified, so maybe that is why. This might work better as a single layer cake if baked in a 7 in tin.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin, on a wire rack, for 5-10 minutes, before turning out onto the rack to cool completely.
It looked a bit sorry, turned out, not really deep enough to be a single layer cake. What to do? Well, I’d make another one and turn this into a sandwich cake. This time I creamed together the butter and sugar first, before adding the other ingredients. It was quicker to prepare, but it made no difference to the colour, texture or the baking time of the layer, so it clearly could be mixed either way.
Lemon Frosting
50 g butter, softened
310 g/ 2 cups icing sugar (powdered or confectioner’s sugar)
20 ml/ 1 tbsp +1 tsp (or to taste) lemon juice
Splash of milk, as needed
I had prepared the lemon frosting, intending this to be the topping of the single layer cake. I used the remainder of the stick of butter (about 50 g) and placed this in the bowl of my stand mixer. I beat the butter until fluffy then started to add the sugar, alternating with some of the lemon juice, until it was all incorporated. I actually added a dribble more lemon juice, as the mix was very thick and slightly granular. Because of this I also added a splash of milk, and this loosened up the buttercream enough to make a nice spreading consistency. Luckily, it was not too soft as it would now be serving as a filling, not a frosting.
Once cool, sandwich together the two cakes with the lemon buttercream. A dusting of icing sugar finishes off the cake.
The cake has a nice light crumb and a pleasant ‘stickiness’, caused by the honey. It does have quite a pronounced cinnamon taste, and warmth-well at least to my tastebuds; real cinnamon-lovers might find it a bit bland. I suppose it could be livened up by adding more cinnamon. It might also work rather nicely as a ginger honey cake; in fact, I think that might be a better combination for me. Still, I’m not turning my nose up at this one, and it makes a nice change from the more regular flavourings.
I got up this morning and fancied baking something, but what? I didn’t want to go out and buy ingredients, so it would have to be something made with what I had in. A lemon drizzle-type cake then.
No, I don’t keep lemons in standardly, and this should probably be made with real lemon, but I always have a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge, and that’s my usual go-to for lemony things. The original recipe was given to me by a friend at work, quite a few years ago. It was her signature cake and always eagerly awaited when we had a ‘pot-luck’. I have, however, made a few amendments, especially the use of soft margarine and bottled lemon juice, to make this an everyday treat cake. The original cake calls for grated lemon zest in the cake mixture, which definitely gives a fresh lemony taste but, as I said earlier, I don’t routinely keep lemons in so that doesn’t work for a ‘spontaneous’ cake.
The Recipe:
For the cake:
125 g /½ cup/4 oz soft margarine*
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
250 g/1 cup/8 oz granulated or caster sugar**
190 g/1½ cups/6 oz all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tsp lemon juice, made up to 125 ml/½ cup with milk
* I use soft margarine for this, which makes it quick to mix, but hard margarine or butter, softened to room temperature, would work too.
** I used North American granulated; caster sugar might be a better choice in the UK.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4. Grease and line a 7″ round loose-bottomed cake tin. Note that this recipe would also work, doubled, in a Bundt pan.
Place the margarine, eggs, sugar and baking powder (and zest of 1 lemon, if using) in a bowl and beat until creamy.
Gradually add the flour and the lemon juice mixed with milk.
beat until flour is incorporated. It will form a soft dropping consistency. Transfer to the prepared tin and then place in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Check for done-ness with a skewer, cake is ready when the skewer comes out clean. Transfer the cake, in its tin, to a wire rack. Use the skewer to insert multiple holes into the top of the cake.
Make a glaze by mixing ½ cup sugar with lemon juice until you achieve a runny consistency. Note that this can be granulated sugar, if you like a granular texture to your glaze, or icing sugar (powdered/confectioner’s sugar). I used granulated sugar. Pour some of the glaze on the top of the cake, whilst still in the tin, using a spoon to ‘feed’ the glaze into the holes. Leave to cool in the tin, 10 minutes.
Remove the cake from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Place a flat plate under the rack to catch any drippings, and then pour the remainder of the glaze over the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides.
Allow to cool completely, before cutting
The cake has a very light texture and a light lemon taste. The glaze adds a lot of extra lemon taste. Its a really nice ‘cut-and-come-again’ everyday cake and very quick to make. It would go very well with a high tea.
Birthday time again, and I wanted a show-stopping birthday cake. We were eating Mexican for dinner, so a cool, fruity cake would work well after a spicy first course. I thought I’d do lemon blueberry again, but this time I wouldn’t use a cake mix like here (Not really cheating…Lemon Blueberry Cake). No, this time I’d go from scratch. I found a recipe on line (Sally’s Baking Addiction), which had a cream cheese frosting. One thing, though, that had a vanilla frosting and I wanted mine to be lemony. Not a problem, I’m always happy to adjust to fit.
Ingredients for the cake
The recipe:
For the cake
230 g/1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
250 g/ 1¼ cups granulated sugar
100 g/ ½ cup packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract*
354 g/3 cups all-purpose (plain) flour, sifted
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
250 ml/1 cup buttermilk**
Zest from 3 lemons
125 ml/½ cup lemon juice (approximately 3 lemons)
258 g fresh/275 g frozen (1½ cups) blueberries***
1 tbsp all-purpose (plain) flour
*the original recipe wanted 1 tbsp, but that seemed far too much!
**I made buttermilk from 1 cup of whole (3.25%) milk and 1 tbsp lemon juice, left to stand for 15 minutes before using
***I used the frozen berries. Do not defrost before using.
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4. Grease and line 3 x 8 inch or 9 inch sandwich tins and set aside.
I used my stand mixer for this cake, but a hand-held mixer would work fine. Beat the butter until creamy, add the two sugars and beat again until creamed together.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until completely combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture, then add the buttermilk, lemon zest* and lemon juice until just combined.
*I found a small grater the easiest thing to get the zest from my lemons.
Toss the blueberries in the 1 tbsp extra flour, gently fold into the batter, but do not overmix.
Separate between the three sandwich tins and smooth the tops. Cook for 20-30 minutes (note the 8 inch tins will take the longest) or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins. The cake is quite dense and moist so will need to cool well before being removed from the tins.
Remove from the tins and cool completely whilst making the frosting.
This was supposed to be a three tier cake but my layers (8 inch cakes) were pretty thick-it would have been a towering cake with all three. I therefore used only two of them. The final tier was very flavoursome, even without the frosting, and would make a very acceptable dessert, with custard for example. If wanted, you could reduce the recipe by one-third and make just two, 8 inch cakes.
The frosting:
1 block/224 g/8 oz full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
The original recipe called for a vanilla flavoured icing, and had double/heavy/whipping cream in place of the lemon juice, but I wanted a real lemony hit so I substituted lemon juice. For this bit I used a commercially-made lemon juice-I always have a bottle in the fridge.
Again I used my stand mixer with the smaller bowl.
Beat the cream cheese with the butter until no lumps remain. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the salt, I tablespoon lemon juice and vanilla, incorporate into the mix on low speed then beat on high for 3 minutes, adding additional lemon juice to thin, if needed. A smooth frosting will form. Use to sandwich together the layers and cover the top and sides. Store refrigerated to set the frosting. Decorate with additional blueberries, if liked.
It made a hearty yet very fruity cake!
You could definitely taste the lemon and the blueberries in this one.
Mark and I have a number of special dates to celebrate. Of course there are the usual ones, like birthdays and our wedding anniversary, but we also like to celebrate the day we first arrived in Canada, back in 2003; the day we became Canadian citizens in 2010; and the day we arrived in Nova Scotia (after a 23-hour drive) and moved into our new house. Amazingly, that was 29 May 2015 so today marks 6 years in the province (how time does fly!).
I thought that it deserved a cake, but I hadn’t thought it through in advance, so it would be limited to whatever we had in the fridge/pantry. Luckily, I do keep in a fairly comprehensive array of baking materials, although no chocolate. We eat it, even the baking chocolate chips, so I’ve decided not to keep it in. I’ve also been limiting the baking, it’s not doing the waistline any good at all. So, a legitimate reason for a celebration (and a cake) is very welcome. Anyhow, a spring day deserves a light, fruity cake (even if it is pouring down with temperatures in single digits), so I decided on a lemon cake.
I have a nice lemon cake recipe that was passed to me by a good friend at my last employment, and it’s a good one, although more of a ‘pound cake’ type, with a heavy crumb. I fancied a lighter sponge, so decided to explore t’internet and see what came up. I found a UK recipe for an all-in-one sponge that looked the part. Baked in two tins, I decided it would be nice sandwiched together with lemon spread and lemon buttercream, and with a light lemon glace icing on top. What could be nicer?
Ingredients.
Simple enough?
The Recipe:
225 g /1¼ cups +2 tbsp/8 oz self-raising flour*
2 tsp baking powder
4 medium eggs**
225 g/1 cup/8 oz butter or soft margarine***
225 g/1 cup + 2 tbsp/8 oz caster sugar ****
Zest of 2 lemons *****
2 tsp milk
It’s a British recipe so the metric amounts are the most accurate, but the lady who had provided the recipe was kind enough to also translate to cups and imperial measures. Note that tbsp = 15 ml and tsp = 5 ml, as is standard in the UK and North America.
* Self-raising (or self-rising) flour is mostly findable in North America but, if not available it can be ‘made’ by mixing plain/all-purpose flour with baking powder at a ratio of 2 tsp baking powder to 150g/6 oz/ 1 cup flour. Whisk or sieve the two together, to make sure that the baking powder is evenly distributed through the flour, before measuring out the amount needed for the recipe.
** Medium eggs are specified. I never have medium eggs, just large, and was concerned that 4 large eggs might be a bit ‘eggy’. The lady with the recipe had also considered this issue and had spent quite a bit of time weighing eggs to work out an equivalency (what a hero!). Her 4 medium eggs worked out to be 3.4 large eggs, or 200 g of egg (excluding shells. I decided it would be easier to weigh my eggs and I was surprised to find that 4 of my large eggs (free-range) actually weighed 200 g, although I have always thought that the ‘large’ free-range eggs are a tad smaller than the battery farm eggs (they taste much better, though!).
***I used soft margarine. If using butter, make sure that it is soft and at room temperature.
****Superfine sugar in North America, although NA standard granulated is finer than UK granulated and I find it can generally be used in place of caster sugar.
*****the only thing I was missing. I added 1 tbsp of lemon juice into the mix, instead.
Ready to mix
Preheat the oven to 325˚C/300˚F convection/160˚C/140˚C fan/Gas 3. Grease and line 2 x 8 inch/20 cm sandwich tins. I always use a loose-bottom tin and line both walls and base with parchment paper.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add all other ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer on slow speed until combined, ensuring that there are no lumps of butter or margarine left in the batter.
Well-mixed
Divide the mixture equally into the two prepared tins. Spread the mixture in each tin using a palette knife or the back of a spoon.
Ready to bake
Bake approx. 30 minutes. The cakes are done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the tins, for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling completely on a wire rack.
Fresh out of the oven
Buttercream
I decided to use a variant on the buttercream recipe I’d used on my marmalade cake (see Orangy Bright-Marmalade Cake) as that was very nice and smooth. That recipe made enough to cover the entire cake, but I only wanted some to go between the sandwich, so I made 3/5ths of the original amount, i.e.
75 g unsalted butter (room temp)
120 g icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar)
1 tbsp (or to taste) lemon juice
I actually think I could have used maybe a little more, so I’d choose 4/5ths (100g butter/160 g sugar) if I was to make it again.
Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar a little at a time. Note that this is a very stiff mixture. Add in the lemon juice and beat to mix. Continue beating for 3-4 minutes (note that I used the hand mixer for the sugar incorporation and the stand mixer for the long beating).
Buttercream
I also made a light lemon glace icing for the top of my cake by mixing icing sugar with lemon juice to a fairly runny consistency.
Lemon glace icing
To assemble:
Place one cake onto a plate. I chose to add a layer of lemon spread. Lemon curd would work very nicely but, in the absence of such a thing here, I used this:
Lemon Spread
Add the lemon buttercream and then the top layer of cake. Spread the top with the glace isng.
All-in-one Lemon Cake
Very nice with a cup of tea but you need a fork to eat it.
Last year’s birthday cake was a little different. No chocolate! Instead, lemon and coconut and a fat-free sponge. Not the easiest recipe, but it really worked out nicely.
The Recipe:
Cake
6 eggs
150 g/5 oz/ 1¼ plain flour, sifted with ¼ tsp salt
165 g/5½ oz/¾ cup caster sugar *
15 ml/ 1 tbsp grated orange rind
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon, or 3 tbsp ready-squeezed lemon juice **
65 g/2½ oz/1¼ cups sweetened shredded coconut
Lemon Custard
30 ml/2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
250 ml/8 fl oz/ 1 cup water
75 g/3 oz/6 tbsp butter ***
2 eggs
205 g/7¼ oz/1¼ cup caster sugar *
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon, or 3 tbsp ready-squeezed lemon juice **
Frosting
115 g/4 oz/½ cup unsalted butter
115 g/4 oz/1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar/confectioner’s sugar)
Grated rind of 1 lemon****
90-120 ml/6-8 tbsp lemon juice **
115 g/4 oz/ 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
* I used standard granulated sugar, since the American form is finer than UK granulated.
** I used ready-squeezed lemon juice
*** I used unsalted butter
**** I left this out of the frosting for a smoother finish
Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4. Grease and line 3 x 8″ (20 cm) cake tins (I used loose-bottomed tins) with baking parchment.
Place 6 eggs in a bowl over hot water, beat until frothy.
Beat in the first portion of sugar (165 g) until the mixture doubles in volume.
Remove the bowl from the heat, fold in the orange and lemon rind, the lemon juice and the coconut.
Sift over the flour mixture and fold in, well.
Divide between the three tins and bake, until the cakes start to pull away from the sides of the tins, about 25-30 minutes.
Remove from oven, leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack. Note that the cakes do not rise raf but are quite airy in appearance.
To make the custard:
Blend the cornflour with a little of the water to form a smooth paste.
Whisk in the 2 eggs, until well-blended.
in a pan, place the lemon rind and juice, remaining water, sugar and butter, mix and bring to the boil. Whisk in the cornflour-egg mixture and return to the boil, whisking until thick. Remove from heat, transfer to a clean bowl and cover the surface with clear film to prevent a skin forming whilst it cools.
To make the frosting:
Cream the butter with the icing sugar. Stir in the lemon rind (if using), and enough lemon juice to make a spreadable consistency.
Assemble the cake:
Sandwich together the three cakes with the lemon custard, once cool.
Spread the top (and sides, if liked) with the lemon buttercream and sprinkle over the coconut to serve.
This is another of those recipes passed on to me by my sister, many moons ago. A ‘chuck it all together’ cake that works surprisingly well. Just don’t do what I did, this time, and bake it a little on the hot side. It certainly baked, but a bit fast and consequently there was something of a dip in the centre when it cooled. Still, I never pretended to be perfect!
What it did provide was the perfect setting for a lot of buttercream-I had to fill in that dip with something! Normally I add a little lemon glace icing to the top of this cake, maybe with a sprinkle of coconut, and that’s all it needs. This time I made lemon buttercream, and it was yummy. Despite the dip, the inside was light and crumbly, just right. I always think that it is what it tastes like that’s the important thing, don’t you?
This is another UK recipe that has weights, rather than cups. Indeed, it had only imperial measures, and I do usually use these but, for this purpose I have translated to metric but not to cups. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t translate to round cup measures.
Ingredients, ready to go.
The Recipe:
6 oz/ 185 g soft margarine
6 oz/ 185 g white sugar (granulated or caster)
2-3 eggs *
8 oz/ 250 g plain (all-purpose) flour
1½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp/ 30 ml lemon juice
3 oz/90 g dessicated or shredded coconut
Sufficient milk to make a dropping consistency, if required
For buttercream, if wanted:
4 oz/ 125 g/ ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
10 oz/ 310g/ 2 cups icing sugar (powdered or confectioner’s sugar)
2 tbsp/ 30 ml (or to taste) lemon juice.
* I used 2 large eggs and it was fine.
Preheat the oven to 325 F/170 C/ Gas 3. Don’t do what I did and inadvertently set the oven to Convection 350 F, it will be too hot. if you use convection, reduce the temperature by 25 F.
Grease and line a 7 ” round cake tin.
Place the margarine and sugar into a bowl and cream until light and fluffy
Beat in the eggs, then add the flour, baking powder, lemon juice and coconut. Mix to combine but don’t overbeat.
If needed, add a little milk to make a dropping consistency with the batter. It should fall heavily off a spoon but not be too wet. Actually, I rarely have to add milk to mine, it generally seems wet enough. Transfer to the prepared tin, levelling the surface and place in the oven. Ready to bake
Bake for 1-1 1/4 hours. The cake is done when a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Perfect, if you ignore that sunken middle!
Decorate as desired. A simple lemon glace icing is nice, made by mixing icing sugar with lemon juice until a nice drizzling consistency is achieved, then pour over the cooled cake. A little coconut can be sprinkled over after icing.
If a buttercream is preferred, beat the softened butter until fluffy, add in the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Flavour to taste with lemon juice and spread over the cake.
Iced cake
Keeps well for several days at room temperature in an airtight container. Will probably freeze well, undecorated. Eats very nicely!
Birthdays require cake! I have to say that birthday cake, in this household, has usually meant ‘chocolate’, and lots of it, so I wanted to ring the changes a little with my own birthday cake. I found a recipe, on line, that sounded good-Lemon Blueberry Cake. Lemon would be refreshing, fresh blueberries would even be healthy (if I could find them in the early part of the year!). Trouble was that is began ‘1 box vanilla cake mix’! Surely using a cake mix was cheating?
Daft, I know. Anyway, it was my birthday cake, so why not cheat a little? I headed out to buy the necessary, picking up the boxed cake mix (and remembering to check what other ingredients the box required), along with lemons, blueberries, butter and cream. Yes, I managed to find fresh blueberries, even out of season (might have been better to choose a cake recipe using seasonal ingredients, I guess). Anyway, frozen blueberries can be substituted for the fresh, if necessary, but they are likely to make a ‘squishier’ filling.
One thing about using the cake mix, it was quicker to put together, and before long it was baking. All that remained was to make up the lemon butter icing, assemble and decorate. It ended up looking quite professional and, thankfully, tasted even better. Cheats can prosper, after all!
The Recipe
I box vanilla cake mix, plus required extra ingredients as specified on the box
Juice and zest of 1 ½ lemons, divided
1 ¾ cups (about 440 ml) fresh blueberries, divided
3 tbsp all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup (2 sticks, 250 g, 8 oz) butter, softened
3 cups (465 g, 15 oz) icing sugar (powdered sugar, confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup (60 ml, 2 fl oz) heavy cream (double cream, whipping cream)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt
Preheat the oven to 350 F, 180 C, Gas 4.
Grease and line 3 sandwich cake tins. The recipe called for 3 x 9″ tins, but I used 3 x 8 ” loose-bottomed cake tins and it worked fine.
Prepare the cake mix, according to the package instructions. Stir in the juice and zest of one of the lemons.
In a small bowl, toss 1 cup (about 250 ml) of the blueberries in the flour, until coated. Fold these into the cake mixture. Divide the mixture equally between the three cake tins and then bake, 18-30 minutes. The cakes are done when a skewer, inserted into the centre, comes out clean. Keep an eye on them because the cakes are thinner than usual, the mix having being separated into three, rather than two.
Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the butter with 2 1/2 cups (about 390 g, 13 oz) of the sugar, until light and fluffy, then add the remaining lemon zest and juice, and the cream. Beat until well combined. Add the vanilla and the salt, and beat to mix well. Add the remaining sugar, as required, to make a stiff icing (frosting).
Place one cake on a plate, top with a layer of icing, then repeat for the other two layers. Spread the remaining icing over the sides and top of the cake. Decorate with the remaining blueberries (I dusted them with icing sugar); add lemon zest and slices, if liked.
I imagine it will keep, refrigerated or in an air-tight tin in a cool place, for a couple of days, although it didn’t last that long round here. It was a useful cheat and a very yummy cake. It definitely needed a fork!
The Pudding Queen 