Lemon Loaf Cake

Lemon Loaf Cake (Suitable for Thermomix)


The prefect cake to have with a cup of tea on a Summer afternoon. Easy to make and a beautiful yellow colour.  Made by Charlie for his Dad for father's day.  A version of this was sold at Baker and Spice when it first opened and is also offered at Cocomaya - proof of its excellent credentials. Like most of my cakes it isn't overly sweet, which is why the thin glaze adds something lovely but not too much sweetness. You could ask how long it will last, but really why? 

Experiment with different flavours. Add some poppy seeds to the cake mix. Or a few ground cardamom seeds or whole caraway seeds, or a sprinkle of toasted chopped pistachios.  Or exchange the lemon for orange or grapefruit or passionfruit, which you could echo in the icing. But keep it simple.

Makes 8-10 dainty slices.

For the cake:

115 g self-raising flour
1 t baking powder

2 medium eggs

115 g caster sugar

65 ml double cream

1 lemon, zest

1 T lemon juice

45 g unsalted or salted butter

For the icing:

butter for greasing, or line the tin with baking parchment

30 g icing sugar

1 t or thereabouts of lemon juice

Equipment:

Small loaf tin - this is the 1lb/500g size not the more usual bigger size. Dainty!

Preheat the oven to 170 deg. C.  Line or lightly grease the tin with butter. If greasing, also cut a rectangle of non-stick baking parchment to cover the bottom of the tin. 

Sift together the flour and baking powder. If using the Thermomix using Speed 2 throughout. Lightly beat the eggs with the sugar until just combined. Beat the cream into the eggs for a minute, then add the lemon zest and juice. Fold in the flour until lightly combined, then gently and careful fold in the melted butter.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Set the tin on a baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Very gently upturn the cake on to your cloth-covered hand, then place the cake upright on a wire rack to finish cooling. Or lift it out holding the sides of the baking parchment.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Slowly add two-thirds of the lemon juice, stirring vigorously until combined. Add more lemon juice to make a slightly thin icing, but be careful not to thin it too much - the icing will thin further when left for 2-3 minutes.

Spread the icing over the top of the cake using a knife, letting it cascade a little down the sides. It will set quickly. For added decoration, you can add on top a few chopped pistachios or some poppy seeds.

Lamb Harira

• Lamb Harira

Ah the noble art of recycling. Here's how it goes. We were having a barbq and there was a very hot load of charcoal with nothing more to barbq - unsatisfactory I thought. Next day's main meal was a rolled piece of lamb. Onto the barbq it went, where the fat on the outside caused an inferno to erupt. On with the lid and  the lamb browned nicely. Next I put the lamb in a roasting tray on some sliced onions and whole garlic cloves, threw in some red wine and the remains of a jug of roast chicken gravy. I covered it tightly with foil and popped the whole thing into the barbq again, closing the vents so that it cooled gradually. I left it overnight and next morning the lamb was amazing, falling apart and smokily delicious. So we had this with some roast vegetables and bulgur wheat. 

Some lamb was left over. Another chance to recycle... So the following soup/stew was the result.

• 2 T olive oil
• Leftover lamb - about 500g shredded roughly (it will break up while the soup cooks)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 11/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 bay leaf
• a pinch of chilli flakes (I used alepo)
• 2 cups stock (I used the leftover sauce from the lamb dish and some added water)
• 2 x 400g cans Chopped Tomatoes 
• 1/2 cup puy or beluga lentils 
• 1/2 bunch coriander, leaves finely chopped, plus extra leaves to serve
• 1/2 bunch parsley, leaves chopped
• I jar Navarrico chickpeas, drained
• Thick Greek-style yoghurt and toasted pita bread, to serve

Sweat the onion in the oil till soft.  Add the meat, tomato paste, spices and canned tomatoes and stir to combine and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the hot stock and lentils, cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes while the lentils cook. Then add the chickpeas and half the chopped green herbs, reserving the rest for serving.

Birthday Cake

So this is all that remains of my birthday cake, which was delicious by the way and made for me by Charlie, all by himself (thank you). It's not too sweet so the icing adds a thrilling sweetness and tang that complements but does not overpower. It could theoretically feed 8 but that would never happen at our place. This is how it's made:

Carrot Cake

250g carrots, grated finely
150g light muscovado sugar
150ml sunflower oil
3 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
1 rounded Tablespoon cinnamon
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Grated zest of half a large orange
100g raisins or similar

For the icing:
330g cream cheese (full fat please)
100g icing sugar
lemon zest to taste

Whisk the sugar and oil. whisk in the eggs.
Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, bicarb, cinnamon, orange zest)
Fold into wet ingredients.
Stir in the carrots and raisins.
(It can help the stop the raisins falling to the bottom if you toss them in some flour first)

Pour the mixture into a medium-sized round tin and bake for 40minutes at 180 deg C (fan oven).

Ice only when cold. Mix the icing ingredients together and ice the top only of the cake.

Tennis Court Soup

Tennis court soup 

We call this soup ‘Tennis Court’ because its key ingredient – three-cornered leeks – are foraged and the first place we found them was next to the tennis courts in Whitstable. There are also two good places to find them near the Emanuel boat house by the Thames at Chiswick; one small patch near the point where the road turns sharply right next to the river park, and another on the bank of the Thames near Dukes Meadows golf and tennis club.

Three cornered leeks have a very short growing season in early spring. They grow in clumps, and can be identified by their green, triangular stalks with small white flowers at the top and strong smell, which is why thy are also known as stinking onions!  They should be picked using scissors to cut the bottom of the stalks to enable them to grow back next year.

Ingredients

Butter, about 30-40g

One large onion, finely chopped

One large pan full of three-cornered leeks, roughly chopped (approx. one carrier bag full) and thoroughly cleaned

One potato (optional) in small cubes

Stock (chicken or vegetable) or water

To serve:
Grated parmesan
Cream

Salt and pepper

Method

Sweat the onion and in butter in a large saute pan, until very soft. Add the three cornered leeks and potato if using, sweat for 5-10 minutes till soft and collapsed and then cover with hot stock/water. Add a few twists of pepper and 1/2 t salt.  Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover, and simmer until the potato is soft, or until the leeks are soft. It will take less time if there is no potato.

Blend, using a stick blender, till smooth and serve topped with a swirl of cream, or a sprinkle of parmesan, and some fresh bread. Good and practically free!!