Lemon Drizzle Cake

I love lemon in cakes, I think it's just the right combination of fresh and sweet. This is my favourite lemon cake recipe as it contains lemon curd, making it really moist and tender.

You can add in poppy seeds to add a bit of variety if you like.

Ingredients

140g self raising flour
112g butter, softened
112g granulated sugar
3 tbsp lemon curd
2 eggs
1 small lemon, juice and zest

Icing

2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 175C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light.

Add in the eggs, lemon zest and juice and lemon curd. Beat to incorporate.

Lastly, add in the flour and mix until there are no visable lumps in the batter.

Pour cake mix into a buttered loaf tin (400g/1 lb size).

Bake for 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes away cleanly.

Allow to cool, then make up the icing and drizzle artistically on top.

Lemon Cookies

These were the non-spiced cookie that I provided for the wedding.

They are like a lemony shortbread and are great with a cup of tea as they are light and vibrant.

This recipe makes around 20 small cookies

Ingredients

115g butter, softened
115g caster sugar
1 lemon (rind and juice)
1 egg
342g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp lemon extract

Preheat oven to 170C.

Cream the butter, sugar, lemon rind and lemon extract until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and lemon juice gradually, beating well between each addition. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and add enough milk to form a dough. The dough should be soft but not sticky.

Roll out dough on lightly floured worktop to 1 cm thick and cut using whatever cutters you like.

Place on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes until pale golden brown.

Cool on wire rack. These cookies will keep for around 1 week in an airtight container.

Brioche Croissants filled with lemon curd

These brioche croissants were the first thing I made with my new Kenwood mixer the day it arrived.

I had trouble making brioche before as the dough was so wet, it was impossible to knead without adding loads of extra flour which completely changed the texture of the dough.

With the dough hook on the mixer though, it wasn't a problem.

The dough will be really wet, and needs the overnight rising time in the fridge but is wonderfully easy to work with the next day.

Homemade lemon curd is the only way to go on these, if you don't like lemon curd you could do fill these with Nutella or just leave them plain.

Plus you look like a domestic goddess when you casually whip up a batch of soft, fragrant croissants on a Sunday morning!

The recipe makes about 16 croissants.

Ingredients

250ml (1 cup) whole milk
50g (1/4 cup) sugar
4 eggs
875g (3 1/2 cups) bread flour
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
330g (1 1/2 cups) soft butter
16 tsp lemon curd

Egg wash - 1 egg and 1 tbsp water


Pour milk into a saucepan and heat till lukewarm.

In a large bowl add sugar and warm milk. Add 250g (1 cup) of flour, mix till smooth.

Add lightly beaten eggs and mix completely.

Add in instant yeast and another 250g (1 cup) of flour. Continue to mix. Add in salt and another 250g (1 cup) of flour. Mix till the dough comes together.

If it is still looking really wet (like pancake batter) then add the last 125g (1/2 cup) of flour at this point.

Knead dough for using dough hook on mixer. I kneaded mine with the dough hook for 5 mins until it started to look more like a bread dough. If you don't have a mixer then you can knead this by hand, but be prepared that it is a very wet dough and you don't want to add too much flour or you will ruin the texture. I would add an extra 1/4 cup of flour while kneading *at most*

Place dough back into bowl if kneading by hand.

Add a quarter of the soft butter to the and mix together. Once the butter is completely incorporated add another quarter of butter, continue until all the butter is mixed in.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place into fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

The next morning, sprinkle your work surface with flour and divide the dough into two. Roll one half of the dough out into a 15 inch circle and cut into 8 triangular pieces.

Add a tsp of lemon curd to the wide part of each triangle and roll the dough up into a crescent/croissant shape. Start at the wide end and roll towards the tip. Pinch the sides tightly to prevent all the lemon curd escaping.

Repeat with other half of dough and place rolls onto floured baking sheets. Cover and let rise for 40 mins.

At this point you could brush with egg wash if you wanted shiny, golden croissants. I didn't have the extra egg when I did them but I will make sure to do it next time.

Place rolls in pre-heated 350F/170C oven for 15-17 mins until light golden brown.

Allow to cool and then serve with lots of tea!

Lemon Curd

This lemon curd is amazing and so easy! It adapts well to different fruit as well so there is no reason why you couldn't make lime, orange or even grapefruit curd!

It's also suitable for use in baking as well as on toast (or just eaten from a spoon)

The lemon curd comes out tart and not too sweet which is what I look for in a lemon curd, if you want it a bit sweeter you can of course add some more sugar.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons lemon zest (about 2 lemons worth)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (2 or 3 lemons)
1 1/2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons butter
2 whole eggs, lightly beaten
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten


In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar.

Bring just to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 5 minutes, you'll notice the yellow colour getting darker at this stage.

Add butter and stir until it has melted and combined. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Beat eggs into cooled lemon mixture until well blended.

Return to heat and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, 10 to 20 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats spoon (it usually takes about 20 mins for me to get the consistency I want, but just keep an eye on it).

Remove from heat.

Pour into prepped, clean jars (I put them in the oven on about 170C/350F while I'm stirring the eggs in as this sterilises the jars and means they don't crack when the hot lemon curd goes into them)

Seal the jars with the lids while hot, and allow to cool before putting into the fridge.

Store in the fridge for up to a month.