Friday 8 May 2015

What shall I do with all those eggs? (part 1 and a half)

The National Trust's lemon drizzle cake, made yesterday, was the most basic recipe I've ever come across. Sling together soft marge or butter, sugar, flour, eggs and milk in a bowl and stir until you have a smooth creamy mixture. Bung the mixture in a 2lb loaf tin, put it in the oven at 180°C and forget about it for an hour. Spike it with a skewer while still hot and drizzle over a mixture of lemon juice and icing sugar. Leave in the tin to cool completely. Fish out, eat, mmmm....

Just pretend that the rest of the cake is there, OK?

I followed the instructions (just follow the link) to the letter, using my non-stick loaf tin. It stuck like araldite, and the bottom of the cake tore away. Tastes fab, though, and the texture is as light as a feather. I used St. Hubert soft margarine and bottled Sicilia unsweetened lemon juice. Stirring to the required texture took about two minutes, to my astonishment, expecting all sorts of lumps which did not materialise.

You can't see the join

This is another cake that's coming again. Only next time it will be baked in a lined tin! I have pre-folded bread tin liners - to put one in the tin will take an additional few seconds, that is all.

To borrow a very useful term from Baking in Franglais, the "faff factor" denoting the amount of messing about necessary to produce the finished article is as close to zero as makes no difference.

I may take one to the Troc Plantes in Le Petit Pressigny on Sunday, but only if they're very very good.

2 comments:

Jean said...

I love recipes like this! It looks delicious and if it's that easy.........it would be perfect for cake club this month!

GaynorB said...

Looks tasty. I'll bet it didn't last long!