ANITA TASKER makes a cake perfect for the weekend.

IN Vienna, where my family comes from, they make cakes for the weekend which have great keeping qualities.

This lemon loaf recipe was passed on to me by a French chef who told me they have the same weekend cakes in France as well. It’s my favourite all-in-one method (perfect for those that don’t have a mixer).

However, an electric hand whisk is a good thing to have if you are a budding cake maker or just a cake maker that’s sick of hand whisking!

 

Lemon loaf

Ingredients
(makes two 500g loaves we use 18cm x 9cm x 8cm high tins)

250g egg
350g caster sugar
2g salt
150g double cream
270g plain flour
5g baking powder
3 lemons, zested (keep the juice)
100g melted butter

  • Pre-heat your oven to 160C (we use fan ovens). Grease and line with silicone or greaseproof your two tins. Please do this with butter as it flavours your cake if you grease with margarine.
     
  • Mix together in a bowl, eggs, caster sugar, salt, double cream and beat to a smooth batter. Sieve your plain flour with the baking powder and add to your batter, then add the zest and melted butter.
     
  • Pour this batter into your two tins, making sure you fill both tins with the same amount of batter (this is so that they both bake for the same amount of time).
     
  • The cakes will take approximately 30- 40 minutes to bake. Try not to open the oven too many times to look! We always poke a knitting needle into the centre of the cakes to see if they are cooked through. It needs to come out clean and dry, if it’s sticky leave the cakes in for a little longer.
     
  • Turn out your cakes on a cooling rack. l Squeeze the lemon from your two lemons and set aside. Sieve approximately 400g icing sugar into a clean bowl and slowly add the lemon juice. You are looking for a soft silky consistency, not too stiff and not too runny. Pour this over your two loaves and leave to cool and set.

Anita runs Pattacakes tearooms at Welburn near Castle Howard