lemon and bergamot drizzle cake

lemon and bergamot drizzle cake

• 24 Oct 2021

Are you familiar with bergamot? It's a cross between an orange and a sour lemon and its oil perfumes Earl Grey tea. My neighbour bought one for me a few weeks ago and I pondered how best to use it. It has a powerful flavour and it's quite bitter to boot and I'm not keen on bitter flavoured foods.

 

 

I decided to dilute the bergamot with lemon and made a lemon bergamot drizzle cake, inspired by a Claire Ptak recipe. 

The original recipe made a loaf cake but I made it in a bundt tin because it's my favourite sort of cake tin. It's decorative without really trying.

 

 

 

The cake is a butter cake flavoured with lemon and bergamot, lightened with yoghurt then drizzled with a simple syrup while still hot from the oven. Glace icing tops the cake when cooled, just to gild the lily.

 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a small bundt cake, which was inspired by a recipe from The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C. 

 

Lemon and bergamot drizzle cake

Ingredients

135g unsalted butter, softened plus more for greasing the pan

135g caster sugar 

½ tsp vanilla extract 

2 tsp lemon rind and 1 tsp bergamot rind 

2 eggs 

150g (1 cup) plain flour 

1¼ tsp baking powder 

Pinch salt 

60 mls/¼ cup milk/yoghurt 

 

Lemon bergamot drizzle 

2 tsp caster sugar 

2 tsp water 

1½ tsp bergamot juice mixed with 2½ tsp lemon juice 

 

Icing 

½ cup icing sugar, sifted 

½ tsp melted butter 

1½ tsp bergamot juice mixed with 2½ tsp lemon juice 

 

Method 

Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Grease and flour a small bundt tin then place in the fridge until required. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the grated rinds into the butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is thoroughly mixed in before adding the next. 

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Mix half of this into the creamed butter mixture, scraping down the sides, until barely combined. While the mixer is still going, beat in all the milk or yoghurt. Then add the remaining flour and mix until just combined. Scrape the bowl and give it one last mix. 

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula or rubber spatula. Bake for 35- 40 minutes, until the top of the cake is springy and an inserted skewer comes out clean. While the cake is baking, prepare the lemon bergamot drizzle. 

Combine the sugar, water, and juice in a small pan and heat just until the sugar has dissolved. Do not let this boil, or the fresh flavour will be lost. 

Pour half the drizzle over the hot cake and let it soak in for 10 minutes before unmoulding the cake onto a cooling rack. Use a skewer to poke holes evenly throughout the baked cake then pour over the remaining drizzle. Let the cake cool completely before you make the icing. 

To make the icing, whisk together the icing sugar, melted butter and enough of the juice in a small bowl to make a thick but smooth icing. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cake and let it drip down the sides. Use a spatula to lift the cake onto a serving dish.

The cake came out perfectly with a fine crumb and just a hint of the flavour of bergamot in the background. I shared most of the cake with my neighbours and it was all gone mid afternoon. Apparently the cake keeps well for up to 3 days in an airtight container but we'll never know!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian