I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, both with work and home life, and to try and relax and breathe out, baking is the filling in my work/home sandwich.  On Saturday, I made a cake to take to my cousins house on Sunday.  The recipe is adapted from an old one I scribbled down years ago in my favourite recipes book, and I've forgotten where it came from originally.  Last time I made it, I didn't have enough ground almonds, so substituted some flour, and we all agreed it was delicious, so it has no become another recipe in its own right.  

As the cake was for Sunday, I wanted to bake something for now, and it was a case of flicking through recipe books to work out what I had the ingredients for.  I came across a recipe for 'Friands' which, as far as I can tell are light and fluffy versions of muffins.  Of course, I had to adapt the recipe, ahem, to accommodate the actual amounts of ingredients I had, so in the process I invented another new recipe.  My version also has chocolate chips in.


The friands use a whopping seven egg whites, so I set about creating a citrus curd recipe that would use seven egg yolks.  I wanted it to be just lemon curd, but only had two lemons left after the lemon cake, so it had to be a mix of oranges and lemons.  

Here are the recipes.  I hope you enjoy them!

Libby's Luscious Lemon Cake

200g ground almonds
100g plain flour
4 medium eggs, separated
250g caster sugar
grated zest of one unwaxed lemon and juice of half of lemon
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Lemon Syrup
Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
25g caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160/Gas 3.  Grease 20cm round loose bottom cake tin and line.  
   
2. Put egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a bowl and whisk until thick pale and creamy.  
   
3. Mix in the almonds and cinnamon.
   
4. Place egg whites in separate bowl and whisk until stiff peak stage.
   
5. Fold 2 tbsp of egg white mixture into the other mixture to soften it, then fold in the rest gently.
   
6. Pour the mix into tin and bake for 45 mins.
   
7. Cool in tin.
8. While cooking, make the syrup by putting all the ingredients into a saucepan with 1 tbsp of cold water and heating gently until the sugar has dissolved.  Turn the cake upside down and remove the lining.  Spoon the syrup over the cake.  Once it has been absorbed, turn the cake the right way up again.  My daughter had this idea - it is a brilliant one, as if you try and pour the syrup over the cake when it is the right way up then it rolls down the sides, because the top of the cake is hard and not flat.  The bottom of the cake however, is soft and flat.  

When I was pregnant with my second daughter I developed a sensitivity to cow's products.  This lead to me drinking goats milk, and soon I was hooked.  I am okish with cow's stuff now (in moderate doses) but I still drink goats milk by choice, and particularly love goats yoghurt.  

When my hubbie and I got in from a rather lovely walk in the woods today, I felt inspired to bake, and made these goats yoghurt scones.  They are the quickest and easiest scones you will ever make, and are not bad tasting for something that is just thrown together.  In fact, being as quick and light as you can with this mixture will make the scones much lighter and tastier.

Ingredients

350g (12oz) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) golden caster sugar
85g (2¾oz) cold butter
tiny pinch salt
200ml (1 US cup) goats yoghurt
Two lightly greased baking trays
Moderate oven preheated to 180 (350, gas Mark 4)

Method

1. Measure out the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Chop the butter up into small cubes and stir into the mixture.
3. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar mixture using your fingertips until well combined and looking like fine crumbs.
4.  Make a well in the centre and add the yoghurt, stirring it in initially with a knife, and then using your fingers to bring the mixture together to form a soft dough.
5.  Roll out onto a lightly floured surface to about 2.5cm (1in) thick, making sure this is even all the way round.
6. Using a cutter 7cm (2¾in) diameter, cut out rounds, and place on a lightly greased baking tray and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until risen and lightly golden on top.
7. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.