Mini lemon and blueberry loaf cakes

What do you make for an afternoon tea in a Medieval manor house? As part of an action-packed hen weekend in Wales (which also included The Crystal Maze, a Medieval Banquet, crazy golf and a 1930s Paris-themed evening), Saturday afternoon was dedicated to a moment of calm in the form of a vintage afternoon tea, complete with tea dresses and scrumptious delicacies prepared by the hens.  Victoria sponge, Welsh cakes, scones, banana cupcakes, chocolate brownies, blondies and macaroons were all on the menu already so I needed to come up with something different for my contribution.

I’d already decided that sheep cupcakes were a definite (surely an essential for a hen do in Wales, with a very Welsh hen?!): these were going to take quite a bit of effort and so, for my second contribution, I decided to make some mini lemon and blueberry loaf cakes: they’re delicious, quick and easy to make and you can’t have an afternoon tea without lemon cake!

The recipe is almost identical to the mini lemon loaf cakes from the Lakeland website that I made in February, except this time, I used the juice of two lemons rather than also adding milk. This upped the intensity of the lemon in the cakes and had no impact on the texture of the cake. Blueberries are one of my favourite fruit and they go beautifully in these lemon cakes – think that I’ll have to make these for my mum!

As with the mini lemon loaf cakes, this recipe uses medium eggs – which I never buy! If, like me, you only have large eggs, just break the eggs into a bowl, whisk and weigh out 160g of the whisked egg to add to the cake mix, discarding any left over.

Mini lemon and blueberry loaf cakes

Ingredients

1. 200g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease
2. 175g golden caster sugar
3. 3 unwaxed lemons
4. 3 medium eggs, beaten
5. 200g plain flour
6. 2 level tsps baking powder
7. Pinch of salt
8. 50g ground almonds
9. 100g blueberries
10. 150g icing sugar, sifted 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
2. Lightly grease the mini loaf tin (ideally, spray with cake release spray).
3. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until pale, light and fluffy.
4. Grate the zest from two of the lemons and add to the mixture.
5. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition.
6. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
7. Fold these dry ingredients into the cake mixture.
8. Fold in the ground almonds.
9. Add the juice from two lemons and mix until smooth.
10. Mix in the blueberries.
11. Divide the mixture between the tin holes and level with a teaspoon.
12. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and springy, turning the tin after about 18 minutes to ensure that the cakes bake evenly.  
13. Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then ease out onto a wire rack and leave until completely cool.
14. Meanwhile, zest and squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon.
15. Mix the lemon juice into the icing sugar a little at a time, until the icing is smooth and runny and will coat the back of a spoon (it will need to be thicker – about the consistency of toothpaste – if you want to pipe the icing).
16. Drizzle the icing over the cakes and sprinkle with the remaining zest.

Lemon polenta cake (gluten-free)

Last weekend, EHH was off on a boys’ weekend and I had a couple of my friends over for a girly night. EHH was disappearing off during the day on Friday, so I whipped up a quick batch of chocolate and raspberry brownies on the Thursday night for him to take with him.

With EHH gone, I had Saturday to myself to potter in the kitchen and so I decided to have a go at a new recipe that I had spotted in BBC Good Food magazine – a gluten-free lemon polenta cake. I had a few brownies left for dessert for the girls but thought that this would be a good alternative. This week was also my week for Friday cakes at work, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to practise a gluten-free cake to take in with me later in the week.

I was a bit wary about tackling this recipe: it required a 25cm tin and I don’t have one, so I had to adapt it to fit in a 20cm tin. As the original recipe required 300g butter, 300g sugar, 300g ground almonds and 150g polenta, it seemed fairly easy to do two-thirds of the recipe and hope that it worked out ok for the tin! The recipe asked for 5 eggs, so I decided to go with 3 eggs and 1 yolk.  I decided to up the lemon zing and added the zest of 3 lemons rather than 2. As usual, I wrapped the cake tin in my magi-cake cake strips before baking and these really helped it to rise and bake evenly.

It’s actually a really easy cake to make and, fortunately, fitted perfectly in the 20cm deep tin. The cake is light and zingy, with rich almond sweetness and texture from the polenta. The texture isn’t that of a normal sponge, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a “gluten-free” poor relative cake. Once soaked in syrup and dusted in icing sugar, it looks elegant and delicious, and would be a great addition to a refined afternoon tea. Definitely a cake that I’ll be making again!   

Lemon polenta cake

Ingredients

1. 200g butter, at room temperature
2. 200g golden caster sugar
3. 200g ground almonds
4. Finely grated zest of 2-3 lemons
5. 3 large eggs and 1 egg yolk
6. Icing sugar (to dust)

For the lemon syrup

1. Juice of 1 lemon
2. 2 tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Grease and line a 20cm deep cake tin.
3. Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes).
4. Add the ground almonds, polenta and lemon zest.
5. Beat until combined.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well until smooth (it will still be a fairly thick mixture).
7. Spoon the mixture into the tin and spread evenly.
8. Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden and springy.
9. Remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
10. While it is cooling, place the lemon juice and icing sugar in a bowl and microwave for 45 seconds, until boiling and syrupy.
11. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and prick with a skewer.
12. Spoon the syrup over the cake.
13. Leave cake to cool.
14. Dust with icing sugar before serving.  

Old reliables!

August is a crazy busy time at my work and we have to work some very long hours. Therefore, cake is a necessity to see us through! However, working long hours means that I haven’t had the time or energy to be creative or try anything new – definitely time to stick to making old reliables! 

One of my most reliable and best-loved recipes is my sticky ginger cake with lemon icing. I made three of these a couple of weekends ago and they all turned out beautifully. The fabulous thing about this cake is that it lasts at least two weeks, and even improves for being left to mature. The cake has a deep rich flavour and moist, sticky texture that is beautifully balanced by the sharp tanginess of the lemon icing.

Another of my favourite recipes is my Primrose Bakery lemon layer cake (made also here). This week, I decided to keep it really simple and just make a two layer cake (225g golden castor sugar, s-r flour and butter, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 25g cornflour, 4 large eggs, zest and juice of 2-3 lemons). I sandwiched the two layers with lemon curd, smothered the sides with lemon buttercream, filled the top with curd and then topped with buttercream piped stars around the top edge. Apologies – it was all a bit of a rush and I forgot to take a photo! This cake always tastes deliciously moist and zingy! 

Finally this week, I decided to make my Apple Amazing Cake – a cake that I have made loads of times but not for ages. It’s a fairly simple cake to make – as long as you remember that it will take about 3 hours to bake! It’s a mammoth of a cake, so great if you are baking for lots of people. I was a little disappointed with this cake this week – it just didn’t have the flavour that I remembered. It is quite a savoury cake – more like a light fruit cake. I’m not quite sure why it wasn’t right this time – could have been the apples – I’ve always made it with huge Bramley apples, but this time the shop only had fairly small measly apples and I wonder if they were lacking flavour. I also over-cooked the apples slightly, so that they were fully reduced to a mush, rather than having a few nice juicy lumps remaining. Think that I may need to give this another go in a few months when apples are at their best, to see if this recipe really is as good as I remember it to be!   

Roscoff Deli and Café, Bath

Picture taken from Roscoff website: http://www.roscoff.co.uk/

Hidden away down a little side street in Bath, just up from the Guildhall market, Roscoff Café is a gem worth seeking out. Don’t be swayed by the familiarity of Café Nero or the tempting displays of Patisserie Valerie close by – Roscoff’s food, service and atmosphere beats these places, and pretty much every other café (of which there are many!) in Bath, hands down.

As a tea and cake lover who has lived in Bath for over 8 years, I’ve tried many of the cafes around the town centre, but Roscoff is one of the few I come back to time and again. It is an owner-run establishment and Rosario, the Sicilian owner, is a host in the true sense of the word. From the moment you enter, you are welcomed like an old friend and Rosario is very happy to chat and make recommendations, without ever imposing.

The building is fairly small – there are a few tables outside (lovely in the summer), the counter and a few tables downstairs and more tables upstairs (up a winding, narrow set of wooden steps).  This isn’t a posh Bath tearoom – the décor and crockery is a little rustic, and the tables fairly cramped – but this just fits with the atmosphere and adds to the charm.

This time, we visited on a busy Saturday afternoon in Bath. We were lucky to find a table as it was incredibly busy. We were a little squashed in on a downstairs table, but it was fun to sit and watch people wandering by, the staff bustling about and Rosario greeting and chatting away to customers.  We were only popping in for a drink and bit of cake, but deciding on what to have still took a while as the menu has lots of choice.  There are a wide variety of black and green teas and carefully selected coffees and a good selection of cakes, including 5 different baked cheesecakes (which look fantastic – except I don’t like cheesecake!), gluten-free chocolate brownies and gluten-free Sicilian lemon cake, coffee and walnut cake, carrot cake, traditional Sicilian cannolo (pastry shells filled with a ricotta cream) and many more.  The café also does breakfasts (which, according to TA reviews) are fantastic) and a good variety of lunch options.

In the end, I opted for the House Blend tea and a slice of the GF Sicilian Lemon cake. When ordering the cake, Rosario was quite surprised that I guessed his “secret ingredient” immediately! He says that I’m the only one to have ever guessed – but I’ve made a similar cake myself before! I won’t give away the secret though – you’ll have to go and see if you can work it out yourself. My tea was delicious: fragrant and flavoursome. It came in a small tea pot, with a tea strainer, and gave me two and a half cups of tea.  My lemon cake was moist and zingy with a lovely lemon buttercream-type topping.

EHH chose a latte and the Sicilian Afternoon Tea – a choice of 3 Sicilian mini pastries: he chose a lemon cannolo, a vanilla cannolo and a pistachio aragostina.  His latte was lovely – the coffee is really good here – my only negative is that it came in a large mug rather than a glass (I have a thing that lattes should always come in a glass!). He really enjoyed his pastries, in particular the pistachio aragostina. The flavours were great, although if being ultra picky, the pastry was a little thick – however, this could just be how these are meant to be!

Overall, if you couldn’t tell already, we love this place. It’s the antithesis to the bland, faceless corporate chains that are taking over towns and cities across the country and the food is great. We’ll be back.