Lemon Cake

Forget about making lemonade when you have lemons. Save them to whip this little beauty up and enjoy the fresh clean zingy taste of lemons in this wonderfully textured cake. Its a double delight with the flavour bursting from the top and bottom of the cake. If anything's worth taking a little tea break for, it's a wedge of this lemon cake.

120         g butter
1        cup fine granulated sugar
2        eggs
2        Tbs lemon zest
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4         tsp baking soda
1/2         tsp baking powder
1/2         tsp salt
1 1/2 tbs  Lemon Juice
100         ml  cream / butter milk
1         tsp vanilla extract

lemon syrup:
1/4           Cup fine granulated sugar
1/4           Cup Lemon Juice

Icing:
1               Cup icing sugar
1 3/4         Tbs lemon juice (enough to make a thick smooth mixture)

Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F.
Grease and flour 1 x 8 1/2 inch pan, lining the bottom with baking paper.

Cream, using whisk, butter and 1 cup of fine granulated sugar in bowl till light and fluffy.
Whisking add eggs, 1 at a time, and the lemon zest.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl.

In another bowl, combine 1 1/2 tbs lemon juice, cream or buttermilk and vanilla.
Whisking together until smooth. Alternately add flour and buttermilk mixtures to batter, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Bake 45 minutes- 1 hour, until tester comes out clean.

When the cake is cooked, cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine 1/4 C fine granulated sugar and 1/4 C lemon juice in small saucepan, cooking over low heat until sugar dissolves.

Remove cake from pan and set on wire rack over a larger baking tray (best to set upside down on rack so that syrup is spooned onto the bottom of the cake as it will absorb better than spooning over the top).

Spoon and spread lemon syrup over base of the cake.

Allow the cake to cool completely.

Icing: Combine sifted icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with whisk until smooth.

Orange Brioche

Orange Brioche

If you would like a lovely moist bread/bun that has a wonderful taste and aroma of orange with out being too sweet, this may be what your after. We  also toast up the older loaf for breakfast and spread it with butter and honey enjoying the orange marmalade flavors.

I am not sure how easy this recipe is to make if you want to hand kneed the dough. The dough should be fairly sticky and wet and hand kneading could be a bit tricky. Of course you could modify the recipe to give a manageable dough to hand kneed however I am not sure of the out come.

For Bread:
    350 g Bread Flour (2 1/2 cups)
    7 g  Instant Yeast (1 1/2 teaspoon)
    1 Egg (Large)
    0-50 ml Water
    3 Tablespoons Butter (margarine)
    1/2 cup Sugar 
    100 ml Orange Juice (freshly squeezed)
    2 teaspoons of orange zest (put in last)

Additional Dressing: 2 teaspoons of orange zest combined with 2 tablespoons of sugar

Optional: Honey brushed on the cooked loaf when its fresh from the oven

Preparation
Place bread flour, orange juice, sugar, egg, butter and the instant yeast into the mixing bowl and combine using water one tablespoon at time to form a moist sticky dough ball.

Once the mixture is well combined knead for at least 5 minutes using a mixer with dough hooks, add more water if necessary but the dough will be fairly sticky, and you may find it will stand up on the dough hooks but it will not come off the bottom of the bowl as it would if you were making plain bread.

Once you have an elastic smooth dough and are finished kneading put in the orange zest and mix it through.

Oil the dough ball with half a teaspoon of you favorite oil (not 15w40) and place inside the bowl, cover in plastic wrap to double in size

When doubled in size remove the dough from the bowl and with oiled or floured hands knock it flat and roll dough into a rectangle the width slightly shorter than the length of the bread pan.

Knock dough flat into a rectangle shape,  time to spread over the orange zest and sugar mixture.

When the dough has been flattened, thinly spread the orange zest and sugar mixture over the surface. Roll up and place in the oiled bread baking pan.

Roll the dough (this photo is of standard bread)

Dough rolled and ready for the pan

Place dough into the bread pan

Place oiled plastic wrap (use the piece that covered the bowl earlier) over the pan and let the dough double in size

Plastic wrap (oiled) to keep the dough moist

Nealy doubled in size

 Remove the plastic wrap and bake for 20-25 min 200c, protect the bottom of the pan by placing a tray on a lower shelf.


Optional: brush the top with honey when freshly removed from the oven.