This weekend I would be running our first course of the year, but sadly like most people all over the world the coronavirus has meant I won’t be. Over the years guests on our holidays and retreats have always asked for certain recipes and now finally I have a bit of time to write some of them down, so I thought I should…
Starting off with my lemon cake, which I always make at the start of all our courses, mostly as lemon drizzle cake has always been my favorite, ever since my nanny used to make it when I went to her house as a little girl -But like everyone I always wanted the end..the bit with the most drizzle..lemon and sugar! So I make my cake with tonnes of drizzle so there is no fighting. I usually make a round cake, but it also works in a loaf tin just as well. I love using ground almonds in lots of my recipes, and find they work particularly well with gluten free flour making the flour a better texture.
I usually start our courses with this cake, as I can make it, gluten free, dairy free or full fat with ease. I also make it lower in sugar than most lemon drizzle recipes- putting less sugar in the cake mix, but not taking it out of the drizzle!
In this recipe i’m going to give gives both options, with or without gluten free flour/wheat flour. As most people who know me know, I usually just chuck everything into the bowl in a frenzy and slam the oven door shut -mostly it works as have a sense of how much a I need but this time I measured to make sure! Here we go..
Lemon, Almond & Poppy seed cake
(Can be both gluten free and dairy free)
Ingredients:
100 gms -self raising wheat flour or Gluten free self raising flour.
100 gms – ground almonds
100 gms -caster sugar (if you would like a sweeter cake add 50 gm more sugar)
3 medium eggs
5 tablespoons of sunflower oil
1 1\2 tsp of baking powder
3-4 unwaxed lemon (rind and juice)
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds
Method
Mix the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and sugar in to bowl, add 3 beaten eggs and the oil. Grate the rind from two of the lemons and add to the mix. Squeeze the juice from one of the lemons and add to the bowl. Lastly add the poppy seeds and give the cake mix a good beat. If the cake mix feels a bit stiff, just add extra lemon juice.
Grease and flour either a loaf tin or a round cake tin- I use a 9 inch round cake tin or a large loaf tin. Put the cake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until risen and cracked on top.
While the cake is in the oven, squeeze the juice from the last two lemons into a bowl and add 2-4 tablespoons of caster sugar, depending on how sweet you want it to be. If you want even more drizzle add the remaining juice of the 4th lemon. Once the cake is out of the oven, use a fork to poke holes in the top of the cake, then poor the lemony sugar all over the cake. Leave to cool and remove from the tin once cool.
Enjoy – always with a good cup of tea.
