It may be Friday today but to me it seems like Monday and let me tell you it’s a great feeling. Will had a conference up on the Sunshine Coast on Tuesday to Thursday so I thought instead of staying home alone, I’d head up to Sunshine Beach and stay with mum and dad seeing as how they practically live up there now.
It was just what I needed after a few weeks of being a bit crook although I probably did pack a few too many things into each day. In the mornings I powered through my work then mum and I headed out to lunch and hit the shops in the afternoon, got home just in time to put my feet up and read for half and hour then it was time to get ready to go out to dinner.
Such a tough week wasn’t it? We got to try out two new restaurants up there, both of which I intended on blogging about but unfortunately the first one was so poorly lit, it didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get a good photo. Never mind, the other one was ok.
One thing I have done absolutely none of this week is baking.Ok no I tell I a lie. Before we headed up the coast I experimented with adding dried fruit to plain sourdough to take as a gift for mum and dad. I’m pretty sure they liked it so I’ll consider it a success.
One of my less recent baking creations was this vanilla almond cake with lemon drizzle and let me tell you, it was one of the lightest, loveliest cakes I’ve made in a while.
A friend was meant to be coming to afternoon tea later that day but had to cancel at the last minute due to sick kiddies. I set up the cake for it’s photo shoot then decided to reward myself with a slice for afternoon tea. It was then that I uncovered a big problem. This cake was irresistible and I had an entire cake and seven smaller versions with no one to give them to.
Luckily even Will liked this moist, citrussy cake and after sending some off to my grandma and giving a few slices to the gardener laying our front lawn the next day, I was down to a reasonable amount that did me for afternoon tea for the next couple of days.
It’s meant to be made in a bundt tin but I used a ring tin instead and had quite a bit of batter left over hence the cupcakes.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. The flowers in the middle aren’t just for decoration. I may have destroyed the middle a bit when I was taking the cake out of the tin. On the other hand, placing a little cup or vase in the middle of a holey cake is one of my favourite decoration tricks. You can fill it with all sorts of things to suit the occasion – from lollies to flowers and candy-canes to fortune cookies. Enjoy!
What about you? What is your best trick for covering up a bit of cake-tin-removal failure?
- 250g (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
- 3 free-range eggs
- 1½ cups self-raising flour
- 1 cup Greek-style yoghurt
- 150g almond meal (ground almonds)
- fresh raspberries to serve
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup caster (superfine) sugar
- Juice of one lemon
- 1 stick cinnamon
- ¾ cup water
- 1 cup icing (confectioner's) sugar
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
- Pre-heat the oven to 150C fan-forced and grease a 24cm bundt (I used a ring tin) with butter.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and beau until mixed in.
- Add half the flour and beat it in then add half the yoghurt and mix it in too.
- Repeat with the remaining flour and yoghurt.
- Stir through the almond meal.
- Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth out the top then bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- minutes before the cake is ready, make the syrup.
- In a medium saucepan, place all the syrup ingredients and heat, stirring, over low heat, until the sugar has dissolved.
- Increase the heat to a simmer and leave for five minutes then remove the cinnamon stick and set the syrup aside until the cake is ready.
- When the cake is baked, leave it in the tin and pour the syrup over the hot cake.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a plate to serve.
- To make the icing, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice until thin enough to drizzle then drizzle over the cake and top with fresh raspberries.
- When the icing had dried, I sprinkled mine with a little extra icing sugar.
Hi- Just found your site and I would love to make this cake. My only concern is the syrup….it seems like alot of liquid to pour over the cake! Can you just confirm the syrup ingredients and amounts. Is it really 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice AND 3/4 water? Thanks for your response!!!
Hi Jessica. Yep that’s right but you can just add as much as you’d like. I’d make it all and start pouring then see what you think. Thanks for your lovely words about my blog! Happy baking.
Thank you! When you made the cake how much of the syrup did you use?
From memory I used the lot Jessica.
What a beautiful cake! lovely flavors – so happy to sign up to follow – you have a gorgeous blog!
Mary x
Thanks Mary!
Love the pics… so pretty! And anything with lemon in it is a hit with me! ;)
Thanks Alison!
Delicious looking cake Claire , one of my favourite kinds vanilla and citrus. perfect idea for hifeding mistakes ( which no one would have known about but thanks for the tip)
Hehe maybe I should have kept quiet.
It’s such a pretty cake, Claire and I would never have known there was anything wrong with it if you hadn’t told us! However…with those flowers…it definitely reminds me of that very funny scene in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ when the well to do future in-laws turn up for dinner with a Bundt cake that the Greeks aren’t at all impressed with because it has ‘a hole in it’. To ‘fix it’ they stick a vase of flowers in the hole! Hysterical. I’m glad you had a lovely mini-break. It sounded very relaxing xx
Ahh now I know what everyone is talking about! haha it is a good idea I think :-) Thanks x
Whenever any talks about a bundt cake I think of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ too! Looks delicious. The worst cake tin disaster I ever had ended up being turned into a trifle… A beautiful crystal bowl makes everything look better!
Trifles save everything!
Looks delicious! I really need to do some baking. All I’ve made this week was packet brownies! They were artisan, and delicious but still from the packet.
There’s nothing wrong with that Clare!
Whipped cream covers a myriad of baking sins.
I love your cake. I think I must make it soon. :)
Ooh yes I do love whipped cream!
Sounds like a great cake – loving the icing drizzle! Cute idea to put festive decorations into the centre – I must admit that it makes me think of the scene in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ ;D
I don’t remember the scene!