When life gives you lemons...

… make lemon cake!

The post title isn’t completely accurate – but then putting “when you go to Sainsbury’s to buy lemons…” wouldn’t really have worked…

It’s a good thing I like making cakes, because there seem to be a lot of birthdays at the moment. And, having said in yesterday’s post I was going to do not much for the rest of the day, I then remembered it was our office manager’s birthday today…

I knew I was going to make a lemon cake but wasn’t sure how… so in the end, I modified my apple cake recipe, using a different method from a recipe book…

Preheat oven to 190C and grease and line two 22cm sandwich tins.

90g cornflour

2tbsp self-raising flour

125g caster sugar

4 eggs, separated

1tsp cream of tartar

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp vanilla extract

Finely grated zest of one lemon (or two – see below)

Sieve the flours, soda, cream of tartar together three times (sounds like a pain but it helps mix them really well)

Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks in a large bowl. Keep whisking as you add the sugar, a spoonful at a time. Keep whisking as you add the vanilla, then the egg yolks, one at a time. Fold in the flour mix and the lemon zest, then pour into the tins. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean…

For the filling, I used 100g Philadephia cream cheese, 125g icing sugar and 1 1/2 tsp (I think!) lemon juice, well whisked together. For the icing, I used 110g icing sugar mixed with 2tbsp lemon juice. I tried my best to drizzle it down the sides

I have to say that, although it was nice, I’d change a few things next time; I’d use the zest of two lemons instead of one, for a more intense flavour, and decrease the cooking time slightly as it was a little bit on the almost-dry side. (I left it for 20 minutes, which is why I’ve put a shorter time above).

But it was well-received and time well spent yesterday!

I also saw my dad yesterday afternoon, who loaded me up with goodies from his garden, not only more raspberries (sigh) but also these:

I didn’t know he had cauliflowers! This one had almost gone to seed – but I think it looks beautiful; I didn’t realise they went purple

I’m loving the summer-ness at the moment too; sitting here at the moment with the back door wide open, bright sun still outside… all good and very peaceful.

I won’t be able to say this time tomorrow – deadline day followed by a meeting which probably won’t finish till 10pm – but positive mental attitude; tonight’s gorgeous.

And thank you so much for the compliments on yesterday’s post – I’m never sure about putting pictures of myself up so it was lovely to read them all… hope everyone’s had a great start to the week

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