Lemon Drizzle Cake

 

I have so many recipes to blog about but I'm lacking motivation, so please bare with me. I will also be away on holidays at the end of August but will be blogging as much as possible before I go. This Lemon Drizzle Cake I baked a few weeks ago and it went down a storm with my hubby. I often stick to my favoured recipe but was in the mood to try something different. This cake is simple, not overly rich, light and airy and has a triple hit of lemon. Definitely a winner and one I will bake again!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Serves 8

Ingredients
225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
lemons, 3 zested and 2 juiced
4 medium eggs, lightly whisked
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

50g ground almonds

For the syrup:
remaining lemon juice
85g caster sugar

For the Lemon icing drizzle:
75g icing sugar
lemon juice

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin. Beat the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl using an electric hand whisk until pale and creamy. Add the lemon zest (reserving some for decoration) and mix well. Whisk the eggs gradually into the butter mixture, beating well between each addition - don't worry if it curdles.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into the cake mixture using a large metal spoon or spatula. Add the ground almonds and 3/4 of the lemon juice and fold until thoroughly combined. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out without any raw mix on it.

Put the cake tin on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile mix together the remaining lemon juice and caster sugar and heat in a saucepan until the sugar has melted. Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then pour over the drizzle on the cake. Cool in the tin for a further 30 minutes and then remove from the tin. Once the cake is cold, mix the icing sugar with a few teaspoons of lemon juice and drizzle over the top of the cake.

Apple Crumble Loaf

It's been a while since I last blogged, I lost my baking mojo due to changing my eating habits and a desire to get fit and lose weight. I've gone back to the gym and I am loving it, I already feel so much better and seeing great results. Of course my boys have been deprived since Easter of home-baked goodies and so I decided to treat them with this Apple Crumble Loaf. Suffice to say it didn't even last 2 days, it flew off the cake plate, I guess they really did miss my baking. This moist loaf cake delivers wonderful different textures and really is like an apple crumble in cake form. It would easily make a great pudding too, served with custard or cream.

Apple Crumble Loaf

Cuts into 10 slices

Ingredients
140g butter, cut into small pieces, plus extra for the tin
250g self-raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
140g light muscovado sugar
100g raisins
3 large eggs, beaten
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped (Swap the apples, for peaches, apricots or plums when they're in season)
5 tbsp milk

For the topping:
1 rounded tbsp plain flour
25g butter
25g light muscovado sugar
1 rounded tbsp roughly chopped hazelnuts

Heat the oven 160oc/140c fan/gas 3. Butter and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Tip the flour and spice into a food processor and add the butter. Whizz to make fine crumbs, then mix in the sugar. Tip into a mixing bowl and stir in the raisins, eggs, apples and milk. Mix well until everything is evenly combined, then spoon into the prepared tin and smooth the top.

To make the topping, rub the flour, butter and sugar through your fingers to make a rough crumble, then stir in the nuts. Sprinkle evenly over the cake mixture and bake for 50-55 mins, until firm to the touch and a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 mins, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.

Chunky Sausage and Tomato Pasta

I've damaged the arch in my foot (again) after a session of Zumba yesterday. This is a result of not exercising in ages and I'm now unable to exercise, so frustrating! I can hardly walk and it's very painful when I do. Due to my injury I needed a meal that was quick to rustle up, so I opted for a favourite pasta recipe that I've not cooked in ages. It ticked all the boxes, quick, easy, comforting and really yummy!


Chunky Sausage and Tomato Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
4 thick pork sausages, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200ml/7fl oz medium white wine
1 tbsp tomato purée
400g can chopped tomatoes
500g pack rigatoni or penne
Handful of basil leaves, torn, (optional)
Parmesan, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan (preferably not non-stick) and add the sausages. Fry for about 8 mins until golden and cooked through. Tip in the garlic and fry for 1 min. Pour in the white wine and boil until it has reduced by half.

Stir in the tomato purée and tomatoes, and season to taste. Simmer for 15 mins until the sauce is rich and thick.

While the sauce cooks, boil the pasta according to pack instructions and drain. Stir in the basil if using, and cooked pasta into the sauce, then serve in bowls with grated or shaved parmesan.

Cherry Bakewell Cake

Today we are celebrating Father's Day in the UK and what better way to express our love than bake hubby his favourite cake! It's a small token to show how much we love and appreciate how lucky we are to have such a wonderful, caring and hard working father/hubby. We celebrated Father's Day yesterday when our son Jake and his family came over. We had a lovely day and of course spending time with our precious little grandson Ollie is always special.

Bakewell has always been one of hubby's favourites, infact when I first met him his diet consisted of Mr Kipling Bakewell tarts along with packets of jaffa cakes. His diet was terrible but then again he was a teenager living on his own and no one to feed him regular good meals! My hubby is my number one fan and enjoys all my bakes but this cake wins hands down for him.

Looking beyond the way the sponges came out slightly lopsided this cake turned out tasting absolutely perfect. This classic combination has this cake bursting with almond flavour, sandwiched together with the luxurious dark morello cherry conserve and topped with a blanket of silky white icing adorned with toasted flaked almonds and glace cherry halves.

Cherry Bakewell Cake

Serves 8

Ingredients

For The Cake

200g (8oz butter), well softened, + extra for greasing
200g (8oz) caster sugar
100g (4 oz) ground almonds
100g (4 oz) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon almond extract or essence

4 large eggs
Pinch of salt

For The Filling & Top
½ a 340g (approx 12 oz) jar of morello cherry conserve/jam
175g (6 oz) icing sugar
5-6 teaspoons water or lemon juice
1 tablespoon flaked almonds, lightly toasted

2 x 20cm (8 in) round sandwich tins, greased with butter and base lined with baking paper.

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Using electric beaters, beat together all the cake ingredients until smooth. Divide the batter equally between tins and level the tops with a spatula. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. *Do not open the oven door until 25 minutes of baking to check the cake*.

Place the tins onto a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before turning out to fully cool. Make sure the top of one of the cakes is facing up as you’ll want a smooth surface for the icing later on.

When cool, put one sponge on a serving plate, then spread with conserve/jam. Sandwich the second sponge on top.

Sieve the icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the water or lemon juice, then stir until smooth and thick. Spread evenly over the top and let it dribble over the sides. Scatter with toasted flaked almonds on the icing and leave to set for a few minutes before cutting.

*Notes*

This is an easy all in one method for making a sponge cake -please make sure your butter is fully softened before you start.

If you find morello cherry conserve/jam difficult to source, substitute with raspberry conserve/jam, it will be just as delicious!

To toast flaked almonds ~ place a single layer in a dry frying pan for toasting. With the frying pan over medium-high heat, stir or shake the nuts continually for 3 to 5 minutes or until they start to turn golden. Remove them from the cooking pan as soon as they're done.

A few glacé cherries placed on top of the icing additionally with the flaked toasted almonds would also be a lovely.

Hubby with Ollie ♥

Lemon Biscuits

I was planning on making some Lemon Curd this past weekend which I unfortunately didn't get round to. I'm hoping to make this in the coming days so watch this space. The good thing is the lemon curd driven purchase provided me with an abundance of lemons. So yesterday while hubby was in Frankfurt for the day on business I baked these Lemon Biscuits to pass the time. This recipe with its all in one method made it quick to assemble and the dough was a delight to work with, which is always more enjoyable. These zesty and buttery biscuits are simply irresistible and very moreish, you can't stop at one! A must bake for any lemon lover.


Lemon Biscuits

Makes 30-35

Ingredients
325g plain flour
200g butter, chilled and chopped
125g golden caster sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 egg yolks
200g icing sugar

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Whizz the flour and butter to breadcrumbs in a food processor, add the sugar, lemon zest and egg yolks and process to a dough. Roll out the dough to 5mm thick and cut out biscuits. Put on a buttered baking sheet and cook for 10-15 minutes. Cool.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and mix with enough lemon juice to make a runny icing. Drizzle the lemon icing over the biscuits.

Butternut Squash and Chorizo Linguine

A few weeks backs I decided to try a protein diet and whilst it promised major weight loss, and I did lose some weight, it wasn't the weight loss program for me. Being a lover of pasta and most carbs, I found it tough not having them in my diet. Not to mention missing the odd glass of wine or vodka & tonic during the week. So I've gone back to Weight Watchers which I know works for me as long as I stick with it. Sticking with it is easier as I'm still able to enjoy the food I love in moderation.

Pasta recipes whether in magazines or cookbooks always seem to catch my eye and this Butternut Squash and Chorizo Linguine certainly done just that. The bonus being it is a low fat recipe, even with the Chorizo, and easy to work out the ProPoints value. The sweet nutty taste of the roasted butternut squash and spicy chorizo combined wonderfully with my home-grown sage. This was a satisfying weeknight meal that didn't take much effort and one I will make again.


Butternut Squash and Chorizo Linguine

Serves 4

Ingredients
half a large butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into small cubes
100g piece chorizo, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
400g cherry tomatoes
large handful sage leaves, shredded
400g linguine or spaghetti
grated Parmesan, to serve

Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Tip the squash and chorizo onto a roasting tray, season, then toss in the oil. Roast for 20 mins, adding the tomatoes and two-thirds of the sage for the final 5 mins.

Cook the linguine/spaghetti. Drain, then toss with roasted ingredients and juices from the tray. Serve sprinkled with remaining sage and grated Parmesan.

Elderflower Crunch Cake

My hubby is fortunate that his job allows him to work from home most of the week. I love those days because it means we can have more of a lay in, not having to catch a train into the city and when he finishes work his always home on time for dinner! This working from home arrangement brings a demand for a regular supply of baked goodies. He loves nothing more than teasing his colleagues on conference calls whenever his enjoying said baked goodies with a cuppa. We spent this weekend at the lodge and I baked a fruit cake which we bought back with us and was finished yesterday. I will be blogging the fruit cake soon, along with pics I took whilst at the lodge. This morning I decided to make this Elderflower Crunch Cake that I've had book-marked for a while and replenish the cake tin contents for hubby! This cake is light and fluffy with a subtle hint of almond that works wonderfully with the elderflower crunch topping. The flavours in this luscious cake really capture the essence of summer (although the weather hasn't been great lately).

Elderflower Crunch Cake

Ingredients
For the loaf cake base:
175g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
140g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder
100ml milk

For the Elderflower drizzle:
4 tbsp elderflower cordial
4 tbsp white or golden granulated sugar

Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment. To make the loaf cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and milk until smooth. Pour into the tin and bake for 45-50 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.

As soon as the cake has come out of the oven, prick it all over with a skewer. Mix together the cordial and extra sugar, then pour all over the cake. Cool in the tin, then carefully lift out to slice.

Banana Chocolate and Pecan Loaf

Hi everyone I’m back from a lovely restful weekend at the lodge. The weather wasn’t the best and it rained on and off but we made the most of it. When the weather was dry we picked more cooking and eating apples, chopped up wood to bring back for our open fires and enjoyed our walks around the woodland and open field we have at the lodge. It was a very productive weekend and I came home with 2 gorgeous new tablecloths and matching napkins that my mother in law made with the fabric I recently bought from eBay. My Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake was thoroughly enjoyed and didn’t last beyond Sunday evening, it’s definitely a must bake! In addition I also made this scrumptious Banana Chocolate and Pecan Loaf, I couldn’t go away for the weekend and leave the sad looking bananas in my fruit bowl. I adapted this loaf to my taste and added chocolate instead of raisins and Total Greek Yoghurt instead of buttermilk. The end result was a moist, chocolatey, nutty and very yummy banana loaf.

Banana Chocolate and Pecan Loaf

Ingredients

100g softened unsalted butter

140g light muscovado sugar

2 large eggs

3 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 450g/1lb total weight)

50g pecans, roughly chopped

50g milk chocolate, chopped (or raisins)

150ml buttermilk or Total Greek Yoghurt

280g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to fan 160C/ conventional 180C/gas 4. Butter a 20 x 13cm loaf tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time (don't worry that the mixture looks curdled). Stir in the mashed bananas, pecans, chocolate and buttermilk/Greek yoghurt.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda on top of the banana mixture, then fold in until evenly mixed, taking care not to overmix. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top.

Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until a skewer pushed in the centre comes out almost, but not quite, dry. Remove from the oven and leave for about 10 minutes, then turn it out of the tin on to a cooling rack to cool.

Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake

Hubby is back tomorrow morning and I’ve missed him! I know he misses being away from home and looks forward to coming home to my home-baked goodies and me. So today I’ve spent a lovely day baking and making delicious cakes for hubby’s return. As you know I have a fridge load of Total Greek Yoghurt and thought I’d kill 2 birds with 1 stone and find something yummy to bake for my man that also incorporated the yoghurt. I didn’t have to look far and found this absolutely amazing Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake. The yoghurt makes this heavenly citrusy cake light and incredibly moist. We are off to the lodge again this weekend and I have a feeling this cake and the Banana Chocolate and Pecan Loaf (I will blog about it over the weekend) I also made will go down a treat! Have a great weekend everyone. x

Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake

Ingredients

175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing

500ml tub Greek yogurt

300g jar good lemon curd

3 eggs

zest and juice 1 lemon

200g self-raising flour

175g golden caster sugar

200g punnet of blueberries

140g icing sugar

edible flowers , such as purple or yellow primroses, to serve (optional)

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with a long strip of baking parchment.

Put 100g yogurt, 2 tbsp lemon curd, the softened butter, eggs, lemon zest, flour and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl. Quickly mix with an electric whisk until the batter just comes together.

Scrape half into the prepared tin. Weigh 85g blueberries from the punnet and sprinkle half into the tin, scrape the rest of the batter on top, then scatter the other half of the 85g berries on top.

Bake for 1 hr 10 mins-1 hr 15 mins until golden, and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, then carefully lift onto a serving plate to ice. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough lemon juice to make a thick, smooth icing.

Spread over the top of the cake, then decorate with lemon zest and edible flowers, if you like. Serve in slices with extra lemon curd, Greek yogurt and blueberries.

Smoked Salmon and Pea Pasta

Hubby's gone to Singapore on business again this morning but thankfully this is a short trip and he is back Friday morning. I hate it when he goes away and miss him terribly, so I keep busy around the house, cleaning, baking and making yummy meals for one! Comfort food is something I always crave when I am home alone and I found it in this recipe for Smoked Salmon and Pea Pasta. This recipe definitely delivered comfort; it’s low fat and incorporated Total Greek Yoghurt! A heart healthy, speedy meal packed with omega-3s and ready in 20 minutes.

Smoked Salmon and Pea Pasta

Serves 2

Ingredients

175g fusilli or other pasta

100g frozen peas

125g pack cooked smoked salmon fillets

3 rounded tbsp 0% Greek yogurt

2 rounded tsp horseradish sauce

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water according to pack instructions, adding the peas for the last 3 mins. Meanwhile, flake the salmon and set aside, then mix the yogurt with the horseradish, salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta, then return to the pan and stir in the salmon and yogurt, letting the heat of the pasta warm the sauce. Tastes great with a crisp green salad.

Light Chicken Korma

Friday night = This delicious Light Chicken Korma served with rice, naan bread and followed by a few Grey Goose voddy’s and tonic. I really fancied a curry and after a quick search on Google for a low fat version I came across this recipe on the trusty BBC Good Food website. This curry was a delicious success and a big hit with hubby and I. It’s another quick and easy low-fat meal to rustle up, which doesn't lack in flavour one bit. I served it with basmati rice and low-fat naan breads, perfect Friday night meal!

Light Chicken Korma

Serves 4

Ingredients

small knob fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced

1 garlic clove

1 onion, sliced

1 tbsp vegetable oil

4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tsp garam masala

100ml chicken stock

3 tbsp low-fat fromage frais

2 tbsp ground almonds

handful toasted, sliced almonds, to serve

plain rice, naan bread or chapatis, to serve

Cook the ginger, garlic and onion into a large pan with the oil until softened. Tip in the chicken and cook until lightly browned, about 5 mins, then add in garam masala and cook for 1 min further.

Pour over the stock and simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Mix together the fromage frais and ground almonds. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the fromage frais mixture. Sprinkle over sliced almonds, garnish with coriander and serve with boiled rice, chapatis or plain naan bread.

243kcalories per serving.