An afternoon of baking with lemons, eggs, almonds and chocolate

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.  

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Libby's Luscious Lemon Cake

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Chocolate Chip Friands

Ingredients


Makes 10 - 12

7 egg whites
190g butter, melted
150g ground almonds
250g icing sugar
80g plain flour
12 cup muffin tin.  (I used a six cup muffin tin and a heart shaped muffin tin.)

1. Preheat oven to 170.  Grease muffin tins thoroughly.  Stand on baking tray.
   
2. Place all ingredients except egg whites and chocolate chips into a large bowl and stir thoroughly.
   
3. Whisk egg whites until just before soft peak stage.  Stir egg mixture gradually into other ingredients.
   
4. Divide mixture among prepared tins, and scatter with chocolate chips.
   
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes.  Stand for 10 minutes on rack and then loosen with a palate knife by running it around the edges.  Turn out onto wire rack to cool.  

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Chocolate Chip Friands

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Citrus Curd

Ingredients


Finely grated zest and juice of two large lemons and 1 orange
250g caster sugar
125g butter, cut into small cubes
7  egg yolks, lightly beaten
Large clean jar

1. Preheat oven to 170/gas 3 and place one large clean jar on side in oven for 10 minutes to sterilise.
   
2. Turn off oven, leaving jar inside until curd is ready.
   
3. Place lemon and orange zest and juice, sugar and butter in a heatproof bowl and stand over pan of gently simmering water.  Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until sugar has dissolved and butter melted.
   
4. Add the egg yolks and stir.  Continue to cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon.  This will take about 30 minutes.  
   
5. Remove the bowl from the pan and pour the curd into sterilised jar.  Put lid on and cool completely before placing in the fridge to chill and fully set.  Will keep for up to a month.

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Citrus Curd

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The results of an afternoon of baking

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