el_staplador: A yellow bird is depicted eating grapes in a stained-glass window (food)
el_staplador ([personal profile] el_staplador) wrote in [community profile] weekly_food_challenge2018-01-14 01:30 pm

Challenge 28: lemon cake

The book calls this 'summer lemon cake', but it's January and I'm in the Northern hemisphere, so...

Ingredients

3 eggs
90g/3oz caster sugar
60g/2oz plain flour
30g/1oz cornflour
30g/1oz butter
grated rind of one lemon


Equipment

round cake tin, 20cm/8"
greaseproof paper
saucepan or two
heatproof mixing bowl (I just about got away with a pudding basin. Just about.) that will fit over the saucepan in such a manner that you can remove it easily when it's hot.
whisk (essential - I used a rotary whisk, which was just about manageable. We don't have an electric whisk. I wouldn't have liked to try it with a balloon whisk or anything less technologically advanced)
sieve
spatula
wire rack
oven
hob


Method

Preheat the oven to 180degC/350degF/gas 4. Grease and line the cake tin.

Heat water in the saucepan. When it boils, turn it down to simmer. Add the eggs and sugar to the mixing bowl and put it over the pan of simmering water. Whisk until thick and pale.

Remove from the heat and keep whisking. Meanwhile, melt the butter (I did this by tipping out the water from the saucepan and using the residual heat, though had I been making this for company I might have used a second pan). When the egg mixture gets thick enough that the whisk leaves a trail when you take it out of the mixture, sift the flour and cornflour over the surface and add the butter and lemon rind. Fold in with the spatula (I found that the flour all sank to the bottom so I had to fold in quite thoroughly), pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and bake for 35-40 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.


After all that whisking I couldn't face making the icing as instructed ('beat 5oz butter until fluffy' was the least of it) so just made up some glacé icing with the lemon juice, but a more buttery icing would have worked better. It definitely needs something to keep it moist.
sporky_rat: It's a rat!  With stars!  It's ME! (rat with stars)

[personal profile] sporky_rat 2018-01-14 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
And after checking, the Commonwealth cornflour is corn starch in the US.

I sense cake in my future if oil will do instead of rind (a few drops, mmm. Something to remind me of summer instead of nasty cold.)
miss_s_b: River Song and The Eleventh Doctor have each other's back (Default)

[personal profile] miss_s_b 2018-01-14 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd go for maybe half a teaspoon.
sporky_rat: It's a rat!  With stars!  It's ME! (rat with stars)

[personal profile] sporky_rat 2018-01-14 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
EXPERIMENT TIME.

And of course, in the tradition of good science, everything will be written down.

I see quite a lot of cake in my future. Oh no. Whatever shall I do. What a tragedy.
miss_s_b: River Song and The Eleventh Doctor have each other's back (Default)

[personal profile] miss_s_b 2018-01-14 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
*happy dance*