Lime, ginger and coconut drizzle cake + the Golden Globes

I was up till 2 am this morning watching the Golden Globe Awards but it was worth it: some of my favorites won (The Affair, Ruth Wilson, Kevin Spacey), some of my favorites did not win (Steve Carell, Rosamund Pike), but overall I though the winners really deserved the awards (unlike previous years).

I did not understand, though, Fargo and Billy Bob taking the Globe home for I strongly believed that True Detective and Matthew were impossible to beat (I haven’t seen Fargo for I really don’t like the movie).

When it comes to award shows surprises can be a good thing, but when I’m in the kitchen I prefer to stick to what I trust – in this case, the Good Food magazine. Everything I’ve made from it turned out great, and this cake is no exception: the limes and the ginger add a refreshing touch to the good old lemon drizzle cake, and it turned out so tender it was hard to slice.

And to make things even better, there’s coconut in the batter as well – yum!

Lime, ginger and coconut drizzle cake
slightly adapted from Good Food magazine

Cake:
175g granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 3 limes
200g unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
200g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 rounded teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of salt
50g desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 tablespoons milk
juice of 1 ½ limes

Drizzle:
juice of 1 ½ limes
1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20x10cm (8x4in) loaf pan, line it with baking paper and butter the paper as well.

Place sugar and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and rub them together with your fingertips until sugar is fragrant. Add butter and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, mixing well between each addition.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger and salt in a medium bowl. Using a spatula, fold into the cake mixture with the coconut and chopped ginger. Add the milk and lime juice and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

Bake for 60-70 minutes or until risen and golden brown – a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes.
Use a wooden skewer to make holes all over the cake. Mix the drizzle ingredients and slowly spoon the sugary mixture over the top of the warm cake and leave in the pan until completely cold.

Serves 8

Lemon blackberry cake - perfect for spring

If it is a problem for me to make banana cakes, I could never say the same about lemon cakes, right? ;)

It is very rare for me to not have lemons around, especially because I use them for many things other than cakes, and I love them so much that my husband brings a couple of lemons home every time he goes grocery shopping.

Adding frozen berries to cakes is a great idea as we’ve seen here on the blog lately, and in this case the blackberries give a whole new dimension to a simple lemon drizzle cake – a moist, tangy cake as easy to eat as it is easy to make (mine was gone pretty fast). :)

Lemon blackberry cake
slightly adapted from the stunning and delicious Indulgent Cakes

Cake:
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
125g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup (50g) almond meal
125g sour cream*
150g frozen blackberries, unthawed

Drizzle:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice
½ tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 21.5x11.5cm (8.5x4.5in) loaf pan (6-cup capacity), line it with baking paper and lightly butter the paper as well.

In a large bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest and rub with your fingertips until sugar is fragrant. Add butter and using an electric mixer, cream the ingredients together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and scrape the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla. Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt, almond meal and sour cream. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with half the berries. Cover with the remaining batter, smooth the surface then sprinkle with the remaining berries. Tap pan over surface to settle the mixture.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Set aside for 10 minutes and in the meantime make the drizzle: combine lemon juice, water and sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 2 minutes.
Pour the hot syrup over the cake, then cool completely in the pan. Carefully unmold, peel off the paper and serve.

Serves 8

Cream, orange and lime cake and how I got to my latest TV obsession

I’ve been tormenting you about The Killing for many posts but I haven’t told you how I got to the show – it was because of Robocop.

I was interested in the movie for a number of reasons: José Padilha directed it, the original is a favorite of mine and also because of the amazing cast. However, I knew nothing about the leading actor – I’d seen Joel Kinnaman for seconds in Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and that was it. I liked Robocop a lot and after watching the movie I began reading about it – I got to Kinnaman, then to The Killing, and when my friend Neyara told me I would certainly love the series I gave it a go, only to become addicted by the end of the first episode and devour season after season (but you already know that). ;)

Moderation doesn’t seem to be something I’m familiar with when it comes to TV series or movies, and apparently I lack it in the kitchen, too: I’d bought heavy creamt to make the chocolate ice cream in popsicle form again – my husband can’t get enough of it – but I lost track of the amount of cream and all of a sudden there was a tub in the fridge about to go bad. I couldn’t let that happen, so I adapted a cake recipe I’d seen on Delicious made with clotted cream and that turned out to be a very smart – and flavorsome – move. ;)

Cream, orange and lime cake
slightly adapted from the great Delicious magazine UK

Cake:
4 large eggs
450g granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream
finely grated zest of 2 oranges
finely grated zest of 3 limes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
generous pinch of table salt

Drizzle:
juice of the limes and the oranges zest for the cake
8 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter two 900g/2lb-loaf pans, line them with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
With an electric mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar for 3-5 minutes until pale, thick and nearly double in size. Gently beat in the cream with the zests and vanilla until smooth, sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and fold in gently. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for about 1 hour until a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. (Cover the cake with foil if it’s browning too quickly, but not before the 30 minute mark or the cake might sink.)
Towards the end of the cooking time, make the drizzle: put all the juices in a small saucepan and heat gently until the mixture bubbles. Leave to cool for 2 minutes, then add the sugar.
As soon as the cakes are cooked, remove from the oven and pierce them all over with a metal skewer. Gradually pour over the hot drizzle, letting it sink before adding more. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then carefully unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 2 loaves, each serving 6-8

Lemon and marzipan drizzle cake and a dull season premiere

Because of the fantastic Top of the Lake I began watching Mad Men again – I guess I missed the lovely Peggy Olson. :)

Three episodes into the sixth season and to me the show has really lost its sparkle – I don’t remember a season premiere as dull as that, and why on earth make it last that long if there was nothing interesting in it (the people behind it should take lessons from the people behind the season premiere of Hannibal). I will go on with Mad Men out of curiosity – I want to know how things will be managed for the show finale – but it won’t be a priority, for sure: Dr. Lecter is back, Sons of Anarchy is very interesting and there are still a couple of episodes left with one of my favorite villains of all time – yes, Mad Men can definitely wait. :)

There was something in my fridge that couldn’t wait, though: the marzipan left from this cake had to be used soon since it lasts in the fridge for only one month. I ended up making two delicious recipes with it and one of them was this lemon cake: moist, moreish, tasty, it gets even better the day after it is made – if it lasts that long. :)

Lemon and marzipan drizzle cake
slightly adapted from here

1 cup (225g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (225g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
juice of 1 lemon
150g marzipan, chopped into small chunks (about 1cm/½in squares) – I used homemade
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup (100g) ground almonds

Drizzle:
juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons Amaretto (optional)
4 tablespoons granulated sugar (cut to 3 if omitting the Amaretto)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a deep 20cm (8in) round cake pan, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the lemon zest and juice, and the marzipan pieces – try to keep them separate so they don't stick together.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. The mixture will probably curdle because of the lemon juice – don't worry, it will come back together when the flour is added. Beat in the vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, stir through the ground almonds, and beat briefly until smooth.

Transfer the mix to the cake pan, level the top and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, before turning the oven down to 170°C, and baking for a further 50 minutes*. Cover the top of the cake with foil if it begins to look too dark, but only after it's been cooking for 30 minutes.
About 5 minutes before the end of cooking time, make the drizzle: put the lemon juice and Amaretto in a small saucepan and heat until steaming. Stir through the sugar and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. When the cake is cooked, pierce it all over with a skewer and gradually pour over the syrup, waiting for the cake to absorb it before pouring more. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, cool the cake completely in the pan. Carefully unmold, remove the paper and invert it onto a serving plate.

The cake can be kept in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

* I baked the cake at 180°C/350°F the whole time, total of 60 minutes

Serves 8-10