drizzle drizzle

Inspired by the constant downpour I baked this intensely citric Drizzle Cake a week ago from my new life manual, Jamie Olivers' "Cook with Jamie". And it is still pattering down.

Meanwhile, I did another Alice Medrich I-can't-believe-it's-low-fat Chesnut Cake, using up the tube of chesnut paste I bought in Strassbourg. Now I realize I was being led to the chesnut spread by higher forces because the cake amazingly good. Moist, decadent, brilliantly chesnutty. And unfortunately demolished before the photographer got here.

The Lemon Drizzle Cake is good though, definitely better than the Ricotta Hazelnut. But not a patch on the Chesnut.

Lemon Drizzle Cake (courtesy of Jamie Oliver)
115g butter, softened
115g sugar
4 large eggs
180g almond meal
30g poppy seeds
2 lemons, juiced and zested
125g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

for the syrup:
100g sugar
90g lemon juice

for the glaze:
225 icing sugar
juice of l lemon

Heat the oven to 180g. Line the sides and base of a 20cm springform cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar using an electric whisk, then add the eggs one at time. Fold in the almond meal, poppy seeds, lemon zest and juice, then sift in the flour and baking powder. Then pour into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool the cake on a wire rack.
Make the syrup by dissolving the sugar with the lemon juice in a saucepan on the stove, stirring constantly. When the cake is still warm-ish, poke lots of small holes in the cake and then pour the syrup over.
When the cake has absorbed the syrup and is cool, make the glaze by sifting the icing sugar and then stirring in the juice of 1 lemon. Pour over the cake and try to create a better drizzle effect than I did.