Lemon yougurt cake

Choosing a cake for a family celebration can be tricky. Some people don't like nuts, some aren't fond of chocolate (incredible I know!) and some don't like fresh cream. Lemon does seem to be a winner though and this lemon yougurt cake went down well at a recent gathering.

It's from my Australian Women's Weekly cakes book. It is a fantastic book with everyday and special occasion recipes using normal ingredients. I'm working my way through them! This recipe is posted here.

It's a lovely lemon cake with yougurt and coconut in it, moist in the middle and quite fluffy. The syrup poured over the cake at the end is worth making, it gives the crust a lemon kick. I only used half the recipe as I was worried about the cake ending up 'wet' but I think it could take it if left for a few hours to soak in. A lemon zester makes the decoration a lot easier too. It's also a good idea to use full fat yougurt, as most recipe books I've come across say the low fat versions affect the chemistry of the ingredients.

The baba ring tin makes the cake a bit more special I think.

Lemon meringue pie

I made this a few days ago, but am only getting round to blogging it now. I used the Mary Berry recipe. It's my policy not to give recipes from book, but this one can be found online here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/lemonmeringuepie_6314.shtml



This recipe does take a while, and many stages, but it's well worth it. It was one of the nicest things I've made; the only change I'd make was to use 2 egg whites and not 3 as per the recipe for the meringue. I imagine it's because 3 egg yolks are used in the rest of the recipe. If you do do this, don't forget to use less sugar!

Lemon buns

It's a beautiful day here and I thought I'd make some lemon buns (cupcakes).

I used my standard bun recipe, with the addition of the lemon.
2 eggs
4 0z self raising flour
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz margarine
1 lemon

1) Cream the margarine and sugar
2) Beat in the eggs until combined
3) Finely grate the lemon rind and stir in
4) Mix in the flour
5) Spoon into bun cases and bake for around 20 minutes at 180 C.
6) When cool, use the juice from the lemon and some icing sugar to decorate.

I kept the sunshine theme going, with some cool suns. I could probably have achieved a better result using all sugar paste, but I like the taste of 'wet' icing. With the lemon inside and on the buns the flavour turned out nice and strong. I hope the sun is shinging where you are :)