Lime Coconut Cake

My camera is still being repaired so I apologise for the poor quality of the pictures but I didn't want the lack of great pictures to prevent me from blogging about this great cake I tried.

Lime Coconut Cake
makes an 8-inch cake

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
2/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 1/2 tbs finely grated lime zest

Icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 tsp lime zest
2 tbs lime juice

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Fold in the coconut and lime zest. Scoop into lined cake pan.
Bake for 40 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cook completely.

To make the icing, combine the sifted icing sugar, lime zest and enough lime juice to make a thick enough icing to drizzle over the cake. Sprinkle with additional desiccated coconut if desired.

Verdict: The cake was moist and slightly buttery. The lime presence would have been stronger if kept overnight but my colleagues polished off the whole thing. It was also suggested that I add rum the next time to the icing, for a more tropical good time!

Orange Poppy Seed Muffin

I dropped my camera and this was the only decent shot I managed on my camera phone. The contrast in picture quality really makes my long for my camera which is now in the hospital undergoing repairs.

I made these simple muffins for some of my dearest colleagues. They're all busy individuals who don't really cook at home so I thought I would provide some convenience at breakfast or snack time.

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins
makes 18 muffins

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup orange marmalade
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbs finely grated orange zest (I used grapefruit)

Preheat the oven at 350F. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and marmalade to combine well. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, stir in the poppy seeds and sugar and make a well. Whisk together the rest of the ingredients and pour into the well. Add the butter and marmalade mixture. Fold gently until just combined, do not overmix. Spoon into muffin liners.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Serve warm with additional marmalade.

Verdict: A nice breakfast treat, especially with milk.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

This is the speediest and most reliable recipe I use. No need to wait for butter to soften, don't even need to take out the stand mixer, just some elbow grease will do. Its adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini's Gateau au Yaourt a la Framboise.

It results in a lovely moist cake that can be eaten plain for breakfast or dressed up with frosting for tea. I love making this because its leaves me more time to play around with frosting and decorating when making cupcakes.

This time, I covered the cupcakes with a simple cream cheese frosting (half of the recipe found here), sprinkled coloured sugar and topped it with a lime flavoured cupcake-like jelly sweet.


Lemon Yogurt Cake
makes 18 cupcakes

1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/4 cup ground almonds
1 lemon's zest

Preheat the oven at 350F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients, beating well. Sift in the dry ingredients and sprinkle in the zest. Stir well to combine. Spoon into cupcake liners (1/2 full for cupcakes, 2/3 full for muffins).
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are just turning brown.

Lemon Ginger Cheesecake

My first food processor cake! I bought my Ronic Rytmo a couple of years ago as a birthday present to myself but I haven't used it as much as I would like.

I'm so glad to find this recipe from Donna Hay's Flavours - it forms a really good basic cheesecake recipe! Change the biscuit base or tweak the cream cheese topping for a completely different cake.


Lemon Ginger Cheesecake
makes a 9-inch cake

base
200g ginger biscuits
1/4 stick butter

topping
600g or 1 1/4 lb cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
7 eggs
1 1/2 tbs grated lemon rind (about 1 1/2 lemons)
1/2 crystallised ginger, finely chopped

Preheat the oven at 275F. Place the biscuits and butter into the food processor and process until crumbly. Press the mixture over the base of the springform pan and refrigerate until required. For the topping, place all the cream cheese, sour cream, eggs and lemon rind into the food processor and process until smooth. Mix in the ginger before pouring the topping over the base in the pan.
Bake in a water bath for 90 minutes and cool in the tin before serving. Sprinkle with grated lemon zest from the remaining half a lemon or serve with lemon curd.

Verdict: The biscuit base was rather thin so I might double the base recipe next time. However, the topping was so smooth and tasty, I want to try other flavour variations soon!

Lemon Ginger Pound Cake

While going through Tish Boyle's book, I was also taken by her recipe for a Lemon-Soaked Ginger Pound Cake. My parents just made a trip to Perth to visit old friends and I had requested for crystallised ginger for the many ginger recipes I had flagged. They came back with a kilo of it so lots of ginger recipes coming up!

I've adapted the recipe because I didn't have cake flour on hand. At first, I was concerned that the amount of ginger in the recipe would overwhelm the lemon but the lemon syrup brushed on after the cake was baked helped to balance it out.

Lemon Ginger Pound Cake

makes a 10-inch bundt cake

1 cup or 2 sticks butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 tbs grated fresh ginger

1/2 cup crystallised ginger, finely chopped

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined then add in the ginger, lemon zest and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions. Pour into bundt pan after combining well.
Bake for 50-55 minutes. Cool the baked cake for 10 minutes before inverting onto wire rack. While the cake is baking, prepare the lemon syrup.

Lemon Syrup

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

2/3 cup sugar

Combine lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and stir over low heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

With a pastry brush, apply some syrup to the base of the cake before inverting it. Apply the rest of the syrup all over the surface of the warm cake, letting it soak in before reapplying.

Verdict: There was a great balance of flavours with the crystallised ginger adding a nice zingy crunch. The lemon flavour was stronger the next day but the ginger bits helped to retain the gingery taste.

Lemon Cornmeal Cake

The latest Weekend Cookbook Challenge got me going back to my cookbooks, which is why I haven't really been baking much. I got caught up going through some of the newer books which I haven't really had a chance to scrutinize and comparing them with recipes from my other books.

The first cornmeal recipe I tried was from Dorie Greenspan's book, Corniest Corn Muffins, which I added bacon to. However, I didn't get a chance to try it or take any pictures because I wanted to bring it to work but I was running late.


So back to the books again and this time I found Lemon Cornmeal Cake from The Cake Book. I figured I couldn't go wrong with lemon and it turned out great. The cake was so simple to make and I got to try out my other silicone mould. I love lemon so I increased the amount of lemon zest for my version.

Lemon Cornmeal Cake
makes a 9-inch cake

1 1/3 cups flour
1 cup stoneground yellow cornmeal
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3 eggs
1 lemon's zest
1 tbs lemon juice, about 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven at 350F. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until well blended. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Pour into 9-inch springform pan or bundt pan.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, loosely cover with foil if the top of the cake gets too brown. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Verdict: The cake was dense and moist with a light lemony flavour. The cornmeal added an interesting texture. The next time I serve this, I'll add some berries on the side.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

I've been so busy fufilling various orders for cupcakes and more Snickerdoodle muffins that I had to take a break and bake something lemony.

I went back to the first lemon recipe that I had ever adapted and baked just to see if it was as good as I vaguely remembered.

Part of the batter was baked in mini loaf tins and part of it in my new silicone mini rose moulds. The loaves turned out well but the roses looked as if caterpillars had bored holes into them.


Lemon Sour Cream Cake
makes 4 mini loaves or 24 cupcake size cakes

250g or 2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
200g sour cream
1 lemon's zest

Preheat oven at 325F. Cream the butter and sugar until almost white. Beat in the eggs before adding in the sifted flour and baking soda together with the sour cream. Combine well and finally mix in the zest. Separate batter into 4 mini loaves
Bake mini loaves for 60 minutes, loosely covering with foil after 40 minutes to prevent burning the top of the loaves. If making mini cakes, bake for 40 minutes.

The original recipe instructed for the cake to be baked in a 10-inch round cake pan for 90 minutes.

Verdict: The cake is moist with a mild lemony flavour. It keeps well and is great served with a light dusting of icing sugar. However, after having had the Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake, this pales in comparison and I will only probably make this again if I wanted a cake with a lighter lemon flavour.

Trying out new things

While waiting for new cookbooks to arrive in the mail this week, I wanted to try out some recipes that I had read on other blogs and at the same time, break in my silicone baking products.

Reading the title on this post was advertisement enough to attempt the recipe for Bacon Brittle from here. This was my first time making toffee so I stuck to the recipe.


The silicone baking sheet was very useful especially when removing the toffee. I had to peel mine off because despite putting it into the fridge for a while (where it hardened up beautifully), it quickly softened and I couldn't break them up into chips. An air-conditioned kitchen would be nice.

However, the bacon brittle was awesome! After pouring out the toffee bacon mixture, the chopsticks that I had used to stir it over the heat had fused so instead of soaking it, I had a toffee lollipop on a chopstick! I had to quickly pack some for my colleagues before I consumed it all by myself.

Next up was Tartlette's recipe for the Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake. She used a 12-cup bundt pan while my silicone one was smaller, 8-10 cup. I was prepared to do little loaves with the extra batter but it worked out fine and turned out beautifully. Removing the cake was a breeze and I'm a total convert to silicone baking products.

Verdict: The cake was everything as descibed and I only gave away a quarter of the cake so far. Let's see how long it lasts!

Moist Lemon Almond Cake

Finally, I had the time to try Nigella's Damp Lemon Almond Cake yesterday. I've renamed my adaptation of the recipe because here in the tropics, "damp" invariably brings on visions of mould.

Another reason why I have tried more and more lemon recipes is due to the Microplane Fine Grater, zesting is such a breeze now! It great for hard cheeses too.


The original recipe called for the cake to be baked in a 21-23cm Springform tin for about an hour, loosely covering with foil for the last half of the baking time. However, I decided to experiment so I divided the batter to fill 2 mini loaf tins while the other half filled 12 cupcake cases.

Moist Lemon Almond Cake
makes 4 mini loaves or 24 cupcakes

2 cups or 225g butter
2 1/8 cups or 225g sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup or 50g flour
2 1/2 cups or 250g ground almonds
1/2 tsp almond essence
2 lemons, juice & zest

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until almost white. Beat in the eggs then the sifted flour and ground almonds, mix well. Lastly, stir in the almond essence, lemon zest and juice.
If using mini loaf tins (6 x 3 in), bake for 35-40 minutes, cover loosely with foil after 20 minutes. For cupcakes, bake for 25-30 minutes, covering with foil after 15 minutes or so.
After cooling, the cake will shrink from the sides of the tin or cupcake liner.

Verdict: The cake is moist and very crumbly. Its got a bite to it due to the ground almonds and while the almond taste is apparent, its not overpowering. Its very fast to put together and I love it! Will definitely do it again.

Update: The cake tastes even better today after being fridged for a day. Can I say again how much I love this cake?