Serves 16
Everyone needs this recipe in their life as it’s so moist, rich and lemony with the fresh lemon syrup poured over the cake after baking so it stays unctious!
(Sorry about the metric measurements)
1 cup (200 grams) soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing the cake tin
1 cup (200 grams) caster sugar or the very fine white sugar.
1 cup (200 grams) ground almonds
1/2 cup (100 grams) fine polenta or cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (gluten free if you like)
3 large organic, free range eggs
zest of 2 lemons, save the juice for the syrup
For the syrup
Juice of 2 lemons
125 grams icing (powdered) sugar
1 x 9″ spring form cake tin
Line the base of your cake tin with parchment paper and grease the side with butter.
Preheat the oven to 350F
Beat the room soft butter and sugar together till pale and whipped. You can use a freestanding mixer or just a wooden spoon.
Mix together in a bowl, the almonds, polenta and baking powder and beat some of this into the butter/sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
Finally beat in the lemon zest and pour into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
it may seem a bit wobbly when you take it out but if you can put a skewer or dry piece of spaghetti through it and it comes out clean, it’s ready. Also the edges of the cake will have started to shrink away from the sides of the cake tin.
Remove the cake from the oven and put on a cooling rack but leave it in the tin.
Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a smallish saucepan.
Once the icing sugar is dissolved into the juice, you’re done.
Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester or another dry piece of spaghetti, pour the warm syrup all over the cake and leave it to cool and soak in before taking it out of it’s tin.
Note
I love to serve this with a mixture of creme fraiche and lemon curd mixed together with some grated lemon rind added.
There you have the ultimate lemon experience!!
