Ah, lovely summer! A house full of visitors necessitates a house full of cake.
Love this one for its summery flavour and its reliably even texture. Plus, it has yoghurt, so it’s basically a breakfast food, right?
Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
-
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
1 tsp vanilla paste/essence
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt (low fat works fine)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup icing sugar
Method:
Beat butter & sugar until light.
Add the remaining wet ingredients, mixing well to avoid curdling. Stir in the rosemary leaves.
Finally add the flour, mixing until combined.
Pour into a loaf tin, or a 20cm round springform if your boyfriend has put your loaf tin away somewhere silly *rolleyes*.
Bake for about half an hour at 180c, then check. If it still wobbles in the middle, give it a bit longer. If, like me, you have an aga, put it in for about 15 minutes and pray.
Let it cool in the tin, and meanwhile make the glaze by combining the lemon juice & icing sugar. If it doesn’t dissolve well, you can gently heat the lemon juice to help.
Pour over your cake in the tin and decorate with a few rosemary springs.
Tips:
With any cake, once your rising agent (in this case, the baking powder in hour flour) gets wet, it starts to do its job. You only have a small window of time to get it into a hot oven and start setting before the magic runs out, so always hold off adding that ingredient until your tin & oven are ready to go.
Rosemary really varies in flavour strength. I used younger sprigs in this for their softer texture and stronger taste.
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5 Comments
Leave a Comment
Sara
September 15, 2014
Thanks Emma. It’s subtle and really works, I swear! x
Emma
August 28, 2014
I would never have thought about using rosemary in a cake, but it sounds delicious! Great tip about the rising agent too thank you.
Jo
August 28, 2014
Thank you! x
Sara
August 28, 2014
Aw! You’re the loveliest, Jo!
You don’t actually need a fancy mixer, just a bowl and some electric beaters. The mixer does make everything baking-related easier though. Plus they come in pretty colours…
I’m usually rubbish at ‘big cakes’ but this one is pretty fool-proof. Looking forward to eating the results when we see you next! Xx
Pancake recipe:
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
300ml milk
knob butter, melted (or a splash of olive oil)
butter for cooking
Mix it all together, leave to sit for a couple of minutes then fry! Cake in a pan x
Jo
August 28, 2014
I’ve been hoping you would put this recipe up. I’m going to be brave and try it, ignoring the fact that I’ve messed up *every* cake recipe I’ve ever attempted. This was delicious enough to risk my ego on!
So now I need to buy a fancy mixer and scoops for cups. This cake is going to cost a fortune!
Also, please could I have your pancake recipe?
And lastly, seeing you breeze around your aga-warmed kitchen, stirring things into bowls, without weighing or deliberating, and magically producing amazing food, was a privilege. I can’t wait to come back.