Lemon cake

Many of you who come by this space every now and then may have noticed that if I start baking a cake I tend to most of the times make the wonderful lemon cake from the Rose Bakery breakfast/lunch/teak cookbook. I altered the recipe slightly over time and also like to add berries on top of the cake which makes it really nice and fruity. Many of you asked me to share the recipe....and here it is...

What you need:

250g soft, unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

4 organic eggs

juice of a lemon

grated zest of 2 lemons

1 rounded teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

50g ground almonds

280g plain flour (sifted)

200g frozen (or fresh) berries

2 tablespoons raw sugar

>> For the glaze

juice of 1/2 lemon

100g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C

1) beat the butter and sugar until the mixture is very light and creamy

2) add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

3) add the lemon juice and zest

4) Mix together the baking powder, salt, ground almonds and carefully fold into the mixture with the flour

5) Butter your loaf tin and line its base with a parchment paper

6) Pour the mixture into the tin, take your frozen berries (you can take basically whatever berries you like, e.g. blue berries) press them gently into the dough and sprinkle the raw sugar over the berries.

7) Bake for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean and the top is light golden.

8) Remove from the oven and cool the cake in the tin before taking it out

9) After the cake cooled down, mix lemon juice with enough icing sugar to make a thick but pourable mixture. Let it drip down over the cake and if you have a bit of lemon zest left, use also for topping.

I always make this cake in a loaf tin but you can use any shape.

Happy baking and stay tuned I just decided to make soon Nigel Slater's amazing pistachio & blood-orange cake:)

Maria