Spring Blossom

There are lots of trees covered in blossom round my neighbourhood, so I decided to send some blossom inside on this cake. Some midweek sweetness for the local hospice - a Lemon Drizzle Cake tweaked slightly by giving it a Raspberry Butter Cream Frosting. I love the combo of lemon & raspberry flavours - do you?

Eastbourne Lemon Drizzle Cake

115gm unsalted butter, softened
115gm caster sugar
4 free-range eggs
180gm ground almonds
30gm poppy seeds
zest & juice of 2 lemons
125gm self-raising flour, sifted

Lemon Syrup
100gm caster sugar
90gm lemon juice

Lemon Icing
225gm icing sugar
zest & juice of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180'C. Grease & line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin.
• Beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy.
• Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well.
• Fold in the ground almonds, poppy seeds, lemon zest and juice, and the sifted flour.
• Bake for 40min or until lightly golden.
• Make the lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until sugar has dissolved.
• While cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top and pour your syrup over.
• For the icing, sift icing sugar into a bowl, add lemon juice and zest, stirring until smooth.
• When the cake is cool, poor the icing on the middle and let it drizzle down the sides.

Option: Make your favourite buttercream recipe and add some raspberry flavouring or freeze dried raspberry powder, spread over the cooled cake.

I made the blossom flowers out of pre-coloured fondant icing, & because I didn't have any pink dusting powder, 

I mixed a little freeze dried raspberry powder with water to paint the centres of the flowers.

Baking Things Better

Things have been a bit stressful lately, so while considering what I could do to help myself I decided to join Good Bitches Bake. Good Bitches Bake take baking donations from people like me, and deliver it to people who could do with a little sweetness in their lives, like Hospice's and Womans Refuge's. Its a win-win situation - I get to bake, which helps me feel productive & creative, but someone else gets to eat it (so I don't have to try and fit in even MORE exercise!).

As mentioned in a really old post, for my Hen's Party my girlfriends gave me some of their favourite recipes. So I thought since I'm going to be baking more regularly, it'd be a cool thing to bake my way through the recipes they gave me - and even cooler for you 'cos I've decided I'll do what I originally said, and share them here in case you want to try them too.

This weekend's baking (my first bake for Good Bitches Bake) I made Belgium Bars (like a slice version of Belgium Biscuits) - spices, sweetness & raspberry...makes a pretty tasty combo!

Belgium Bars

200gms Sugar

200gms Butter

1 Egg

1tsp Cinnamon

1tsp Mixed Spice

4tsp Baking Powder

2cups of Flour

3-4Tbsp Raspberry Jam

Icing

250gms Butter

500gms Icing Sugar

2tsp Raspberry Flavoured Essence

Freeze Dried Raspberry Power/Jelly Crystals for Sprinkling

• Heat over to 160'C and line a 28xm x 18cm slice tin
• Cream Butter & Sugar together
• Beat in egg
• Sift dry ingredients then mix into creamed butter until well combined
• Spread half the mix out to cover the bottom of the tin (you may be able to roll it out first) and prick with a fork/skewer
• Cover with Jam, and then spread other half of dough to cover the jam
• Bake for 20-30 mins til starting to brown, then cool out of the tin on a cooling rack.
• To make the icing: whip softened butter til creamy, then add icing sugar in 3 or 4 additions beating between each til smooth. Add raspberry flavouring & mix. If icing is too stiff add a small amount of warm water.
• Once the slice is cool, ice with butter cream & sprinkle with raspberry powder. 

Options: I cut the slices first before icing so I could make the piped icing look neater - if piping icing on, you may want to smear a small amount of icing on the slice first (like a crumb coat) so the piped icing will tick.

If you want you can flavour the icing using freeze dried raspberry powder instead of flavouring - you'll need a Tbsp or 2 (but taste test to get the strength of flavour you want)

Enjoy!

And here they all are ready to go to their new home :)