Gluten-free bitter lemon and almond cake with stawberry glaze

I love Twitter. I still find it so cool that I can write a message to anyone anywhere in the world and get a reply. On the day of the baby shower I tweeted Garry Younberry (the channel 9 weather man up here in Queensland) to ask if I should set a table outside. He replied quickly saying it should be fine and to have a wonderful day. I know that phones do what Twitter does but it's not like I could ring the weather man and ask him that. It screams crazy stalker lady to me.

Apart from asking the weatherman strange questions, I've used Twitter to meet and talk with so many other lovely bloggers. On Sunday morning I tweeted Jennifer from Delicieux to tell her I was about to make her gluten free lemon and almond cake and we had quite a long conversation about it. She warned me to let the guests know it's more of a bitter lemon cake and not to expect the sunshine lemon freshness.

She was right about it being a bitter lemon flavour but this cake was unlike anything I've tasted before. It was quite delicious. Although it was definitely bitter, the icing balanced it out nicely. Jennifer used a blueberry thick frosting on hers and I think if I made it again that's the way I'd go. A little extra sweetness never fails. I ground my own almonds, which happened to be roasted because that's all I had and it added a wonderful richness to the cake. The odd little piece of almond was a nice surprise too. The total time to bake this cake is a few hours but there's very little actual hands-on work involved. It's the perfect cake to make on a lazy Sunday at home.

I prepared my lemons earlier (just like I'd do if I had my own cooking show) but it's very easy. Put them in a large saucepan and cover them with water. Bring the pot to the boil and then reduce it to a simmer. Let them simmer away until they soften. Mine took about an hour and a half but they could take up to two hours. When they're soft, take them out of the water and set them aside to cool. I might have cheated and put them in the freezer because I severely underestimated the timings. When they're cool, cut them in half and scoop out any large seeds.

I made the almond meal by blending up roasted almonds in my Vita-mix blender. You can use a food processor to make almond meal as well. Just be sure not to blend them too long or you will end up with almond butter. It's not a bad thing to have almond butter, it's delicious, but not what you're looking for in this recipe.

You probably think I missed my usual steps skipping straight from ingredients to batter in the cake tin but that's how easy this recipe is. All you have to do is blitz the lemons for a few seconds in the food processor (I used my blender because I still don't have a food processor, poor sad food blogger with no food processor to her my KitchenAid Mixer) and then add the rest of the ingredients and blitz them up until they're nice and smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake the cake at 160C fan-forced for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Check on the cake every once in a while after about 30 minutes to make sure it's not browning too fast on the top. If it is, cover it with aluminum foil.

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin and the transfer it to a cake plate ready for icing. To make the icing, put the icing sugar in a bowl and add water a little at a time until it is a nice drizzle consistency. Stir in the chopped strawberries and then drizzle the mixture over the top of the cake.

Serve it with lot of strawberries. Enjoy!

What about you? Do you use Twitter? What's the strangest thing you've asked someone on Twitter?

Recipe

Gluten-free bitter lemon and almond cake with stawberry glaze

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Author: Recipe slightly adapted from [url href="http://www.ledelicieux.com/2012/03/02/lemon-cake-with-blueberry-frosting/"]Delicieux[/url]

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Ingredients

• 3 lemons weighing approximately 375g (13oz)
• 6 eggs
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 250 g 8.8oz of ground almonds
• 250 g 8.8oz of caster (superfine) sugar

Strawberry Glaze

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 6 strawberries chopped
• water

Instructions

• Find a saucepan that will comfortably fit the three lemons. Put the lemons in the saucepan and cover them with water then place it over the heat. Bring the pot to a boil then reduce it to a simmer and leave it simmering for 2 hours or until the lemons are soft.
• Take the lemons out of the water and set them aside to cool.
• When the lemons have cooled, cut them in half and take out any large seeds.
• Grease and line the bottom of a 20cm spring-form tin.
• Pre-heat the oven to 160(320F) ( fan-forced.
• Put the lemon in the food processor or blender and pulp them up.
• Add the rest of the cake ingredients and process until smooth.
• Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• If the top starts to brown too fast, cover it with aluminum foil.
• Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.
• Remove the cake from the tin onto a serving platter.
• To make the icing, add water to the icing sugar until it reaches a drizzle consistency. Stir through the strawberries and pour the icing over the cake.

Have you made this recipe? I'd love to hear what you think. Tag me on Instagram @clairekcreations