Lemon Drizzle Loaf

Inspired by seeing a tweet from @utterlyscrummy about her baking and looking at her blogpost, we decided to give the recipe she posted a try with gluten free flour.

The recipe calls for the following ingredients -
200g softened butter
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour, sifted (we used Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour)
3 free range eggs (we used medium eggs)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
for the lemon drizzle:
Juice of the zested lemon
50g of sugar  (add 5g more if you used a rather large lemon)

After gathering the above ingredients, Sous Chef J set about creaming the butter and sugar... for once, he was happy to give it a go with our electric hand mixer (this may have something to do with the promise of "cook's reward" of licking the beaters at the end of mixing).  He made a good effort and managed to handle the mixer quite well.

He then grated the zest of the lemon and mixed this into the creamed butter and sugar.

Next we added in the flour - about one third at a time, with one of the eggs - and mixed some more.  By the end of this time, the mix was quite firm so Sous Chef J had swapped back to being photographer.





Finally, the cake mix was dolloped into a pre-lined (we use the ready made loaf tin liners) tin. the mix was evened out before the loaf was put into a warm oven (170C fan) for 40 minutes. It was checked with a knife at this point but was still very batter-like so it was left in the oven for a further 10minutes (obviously this stage depends on your cooker and the ingredients/tin you've used so you need to keep an eye on it).  After this time, we turned the oven off but left the loaf in for a further five minutes.  It was then removed to cool slightly in the tin.

The lemon drizzle mix was prepared using the juice of the lemon and sugar.  It was poured over the warm cake which we'd 'stabbed' all over.  Then we had to be patient and let it cool a little more before we could eat it!

Having waited as long as we could, we cut a slice of cake each and were delighted at the light, lemony lusciousness we were rewarded with!  Sous Chef J did comment that "we've used too much baking powder" having seen that the middle had sunk... however, this will have been the result of our frugal oven use as we also cooked 2 pizzas and a tray of coconut biscuits so the oven door was opened a few times.  Anyway, to use a favourite phrase of Sous Chef J ""it all goes the same in your tummy; YUM." So we weren't put off by the saggy bit... in fact it absorbed the drizzle very well indeed.

Annie's Lemon Cake (Gluten Free)

Part of our outings these days is seeking out suitable establishments to allow us the treat of eating out. Last month, while sous chef J was attending a block placement at Megan Baker House, near Leominster, Herefordshire, it became part of the daily routine to call into Berrington Hall, a National Trust property that is, literally on the doorstep.

On the first day, we asked what Gluten Free options were available and were delighted to be served Lemon Cake. After that, we returned each day... and, as it was so delicious, I asked for the recipe. What a surprise I had when the chef, Annie, came out of the kitchens to talk to me, share her recipe and lend me a recipe book to leaf through whilst I was there! We had a lovely chat about all things Gluten Free and she even gave my husband a 'new recipe' scone to try... he loved it.

So, here is Annie's Lemon Cake recipe... and the record of how it was making it for the first time.

8oz softened butter (we used unsalted)
8oz caster sugar
8oz ground almonds
3 large eggs
2 lemons - juice and zest
4oz polenta
1 teaspoon Gluten Free baking powder (we used Dove's Farm)

For the topping, make a thin syrup of the juice and zest of 2 lemons (we added about 3 tablespoons of sugar to this to make our syrup, but this is something that needs to be done 'to taste' depending on the size of the lemons).
First of all the butter and sugar were creamed. Then the eggs, ground almonds, lemon juice and zest, polenta and baking powder were added. This was then thoroughly combined. By hand. It is quite a firm mixture - and sous chef J was happy to direct proceedings rather than do the hands on work.
Having combined all the ingredients by hand, the mix was shared between a lined 20cm (8") round tin and 6 muffin cases. The recipe states a 9" square tin, but we don't have the resources of a National Trust property's kitchen at our disposal so had to do some maths to work out similar volume/area using the bakeware we do have!
The cakes were placed in a preheated oven (150ºC fan, 165ºC non fan). The cakes looked like this once they had been baked for about 15 minutes - obviously, this is longer for the large, 20cm (8") cake... and this one needs to be firm to the touch before removing from the oven (takes about 40 minutes).
Once the cakes were baked, the lemon syrup mix was drizzled over them. They were then left to cool fully in the tins.
The final result...
The verdict is that they are yummy... although not quite as good looking as Annie's originals!

Annie told me they keep well... but you'll have to verify that for yourselves; they're eaten too fast here to check that out.