I recently realised that my kitchen has a ridiculous amount of lemons in it. I love lemons because they have so many uses – you can cook and clean with them, add them to water to give yourself a boost of a morning, and they’re so bright that they jazz up a dull fruit bowl.
All that being said though, there were too many – something had to be done! I’ve still got leftover lemon curd in the pantry and I’ve been drinking zesty water for days now. So I made this little beauty. This cake is super lemony and perfect to serve if you’re not after a saccharine dessert.
This post was written for the Geelong Blabbertiser and can be found here as well.
- 120g unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup almond meal
- zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
- 1 cup frozen berries
Lemon syrup
- 100 g caster sugar
- Juice of one lemon
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and grease a 20cm springform cake tin.
Beat together the butter and caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one stirring to combine, then gently mix in your almond meal. Zest and juice your two lemons – zesting is the bane of my life, but it’s worth it! Add in your flour and give it a good mix.
Pour the mixture into your greased tin and sprinkle the berries over the top of the cake. Press the berries down using your fingers or a skewer to varying depths within the batter. The batter is thick enough that the berries shouldn’t sink too much while the cake bakes. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
In the last ten minutes of the baking make your lemon syrup by juicing the third (and final!) lemon and putting it in a pan with the sugar. Stir the mixture over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn the heat up and boil it for one minute to thicken the syrup slightly. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool.
When a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, your cake is done. Allow the cake to cool slightly before turning out onto a cooling rack. While it’s still warm, take a skewer and poke dozens of holes in the top of the cake, allowing the skewer to go about ¾ of the way down.
Spoon your syrup generously over the cake and serve it warm. It will give the cake a dense, moist crumb which is absolutely delightful.
If your guests are craving sweetness, sprinkle the cake with icing sugar and serve some whipped cream on the side to tone down the tartness!
Looks like I’m going to have to buy measuring cups! I’ve only been baking in grammes as I prefer the exact (or should that be exacting) measurements given. Besides, If flour is packed in a cup surely the weight will differ? Hmm, pretty obvious I’m still learning about this wonderful baking lark.
Ooh this comment took me so long to see! Cup measurements are the norm in Australia, so I’ve never really questioned them! You do have to be careful though, because, as you say, one cup of flour isn’t a consistent weight. One cup of flour won’t weigh the same as a cup of sugar or shredded coconut either (which I learned the hard way a few years ago!)
It’s fabulous to ask these questions, because otherwise you’ll never know!
I’m making this at the moment and had to do a double take on the recipe. You omitted when to add the flour! I put the lemon and almond meal in and thought hang on where’s the flour? Added it last and is now cooking and smells great.
Ooh Sue, thankyou for pointing that out! No matter how many times you proofread a recipe, you can always miss something! I’ll add it in now. Please let me know how the cake goes, post a picture on the Baking with Gab facebook page if you can!
My cake turned out really well despite having a bit of a hiccup with the drizzle. I Got distracted and left it too long on the heat! It was more like toffee! Still tasted good. Sorry not too good with the photography so no photo. Will definitely be making this again.
That’s so lovely to hear! I’m sure the drizzle makes a good toffee as well, so it was probably a happy hiccup! Thankyou for the feedback, I love hearing back from fellow bakers.