amalfi lemon cake

amalfi lemon cake

5 Sept 2022

 

A few weeks ago I saw a video of Jamie Oliver and Gennaro Contaldo making an Amalfi lemon cake. I knew I already had an Amalfi lemon cake recipe bookmarked, so I dug it out and realised the recipes were very similar. I combined the 2 recipes together to come up with this gluten free Amalfi lemon cake.

As the cake is oil based, it doesn't take long to put the cake together. The most time consuming part is cooking the lemon. You're supposed to boil the lemon before pureeing it, but I pierce the lemon a few times before microwaving it for a few minutes which achieves the same effect in way less time. Once the cook has cooled, it's decorated with lashings of whipped cream, some lemon syrup and a few toasted almond flakes.

 

Here's the recipe for which makes an 8 inch/20 cm cake. 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. 

 

Amalfi Lemon Cake - adapted from Delicious magazine 

Ingredients
1 large lemon (preferably seedless)
1 cup (250ml) extra virgin olive oil 
250g almond meal
100g superfine polenta flour, sifted or plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
Pinch salt  

4 eggs
250g caster sugar  

Lemon syrup
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
Juice of 2 lemons 

 

To decorate

300mls cream, whisked to stiff peaks 

2 tbs toasted flaked almonds

Method 

Place lemon in a deep saucepan, cover with cold water and place a small plate on top to keep lemon submerged. Bring to a rapid simmer over medium heat. Cook for 20 minutes or until lemon is just soft, topping up water if needed, or microwave the lemon with 1 tbs water in a covered bowl for 3-4 minutes, then drain and cool completely. Cut into quarters and remove seeds. Place in a blender with oil and whiz until smooth and emulsified. Set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease and flour a 20cm-round cake pan and line the base with baking paper. Mix together the almond meal, flour, baking powder and salt. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine, then whisk in lemon puree and the almond meal.

 

Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes until the top is just firm and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 1 hour, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely. 

Lemon syrup

Combine sugar and juice of 1 1/2 lemons in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 4-6 minutes until thickened and starting to caramelise. Cool syrup, then mix in remaining juice of 1/2 lemon until combined. Cool completely to room temperature. 

 

To serve 

Top the cake with cream, drizzle with syrup and decorate with a few flaked almonds.

 

 

I made the cake last weekend and took it to a friends place for dessert and it was a roaring success so I made it a second time to share with my neighbours for Father's Day.

 

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

 

Bye for now,

 

Jillian 

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orange marmalade bundt cake

orange marmalade bundt cake

13 Jul 2020

I've been in Brisbane the past few weeks and this fancy bundt tin belongs to my Dad. It's a little larger than the tin I use at home so I always have to play around with the recipe to fit the tin. 




Dad loves a good old fashioned butter cake but he doesn't like sweet cakes so when I bake for him I eschew icing and I also reduce the sugar quantity in the recipe a little. With a very sad looking orange and the dregs of a bottle of orange marmalade in the fridge, I decided to make an orange marmalade bundt cake which I adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.



This is a classic 3 egg butter cake jazzed up with the addition of some almond meal and a few spoons of orange marmalade. 



Here's the recipe for you which makes a medium bundt cake or a 20cm cake. 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 20ºC. If you bake the cake in a round tin, it will take about 10 more minutes to bake.



Orange Marmalade Bundt Cake – adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.
Ingredients
150 g unsalted butter (at room temperature) plus extra for greasing
135 -150g caster sugar
1 large orange, rind grated and juiced to make 60 mls
2 tablespoons marmalade
3 large eggs
150 g self-raising flour
⅓ cup almond meal
Pinch sea salt

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a medium size Bundt tin and place in the fridge.

Cream the butter, caster sugar and rind until pale and fluffy, then beat in the marmalade, followed by the eggs. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and a pinch of sea salt then fold through all the juice.

Carefully spoon the cake batter into the tin. Place in the oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until golden and firm to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before turning out the cake onto a cooling rack. Cool then lightly dust with icing sugar before serving.

The uncooked batter tasted delicious so I knew the cake was going to be a winner and it was. It had a lovely orange flavour and a perfect crumb. If you like a sweeter cake, then increase the sugar to 150 grams.



See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen (or Dad's).

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lime pistachio layer cake

lime pistachio layer cake

27 Jun 2016

When it comes to my birthday, I make my own birthday cake. This year I decided to try a recipe from Delicious Magazine. Originally the cake was a gluten free lemon cake but as its lime season here I adapted the recipe a little, well actually quite a lot and I used regular rather than gluten free flour.



The original cake had 4 layers but I couldn't work out how I could safely navigate the cake on my one hour commute to work so it became a 2 layer cake.




The cake is very easy to make but the first time I made it, the cake mixture barely rose. Despite that the finished layer cake tasted delicious. 



I guess it's hard to go wrong with a moist and nutty cake layered with cream and lime curd, doused with lime syrup then topped with lime icing and a few extra pistachios.



I wasn't happy to share the recipe the way it was, so I tweaked the recipe a little and remade the cake as a bundt cake.



This time the cake rose high and handsome so I'm happy to share the revamped recipe with you.



Lime and Pistachio and  Layer Cake (adapted from Jamie Oliver Gluten Free Bakes, Delicious Magazine Issue 160 June 2016)

Lime Curd
75 mls lime juice
The grated rind of 1 lime
⅓ cup caster sugar
2 egg yolks
60g unsalted butter, chopped

Cake Ingredients
125 g unsalted butter
50 g pistachios, plus extra to decorate
¼ cup almond meal
125 g caster sugar
¾ cup self-raising flour
pinch salt
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup low fat plain yoghurt
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling
½ cup lime curd
½ cup double cream

Syrup/Topping
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
75 g pure icing sugar, sifted

Method
To make the lime curd, combine the lime juice and rind, the caster sugar and egg yolks into a small microwaveable bowl. Cook on medium-high for 1 minute before stirring. Continue the same process for 4-5 more minutes or until the mixture thickens a little. Pass the curd through a fine sieve into a separate small bowl before adding the unsalted butter. Mix thoroughly until well combined then pour the curd into a small sterilised jar and allow to cool. Seal the jar before storing the curd in the fridge.

To make the cake, grease and line the base and sides of a two 16cm round cake pans with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add oil, then remove from heat and set aside to cool. Whiz the pistachios in a food processor until very finely ground. Place in a bowl and sift in all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre. Add butter mixture, yoghurt, eggs and vanilla and whisk to make a loose batter. Divide batter between pans, then bake for 25 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool slightly.

Reserve I tbs of lime curd. Whisk the remaining lime curd and double cream in a bowl until thick. Chill until needed. Combine the lime juice and 25g icing sugar in a pan over low heat stirring until the mixture is clear. While cakes are still warm pierce all over with a skewer, then slowly drizzle 1 tbs lime syrup over each cake. Set cakes aside to cool completely.

When cakes are cool, place one cake layer on a plate and spread with the reserved lime curd, then carefully cover with the cream mixture. Top with the second cake layer. Combine remaining icing sugar with the lime syrup to make a thick icing, adding a little water to loosen if necessary. Stir in the lime zest, then drizzle the icing over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Scatter the chopped pistachios over the cake to serve.

You can also make a small bundt cake with this recipe and and it will take about 30 minutes to cook through. Drizzle the cake with the syrup, reserving 1 tbs to make the icing. When cool top the cake with the icing and reserved pistachios. Even without the curd and cream, the syrup soaked cake is pretty delicious.



So it's time for me to say goodbye to my kitchen for the next 5 weeks. Instead of baking photos expect to see travel photos on the blog for the next month as I make my way to London, Glasgow, Zurich, Paris and on to Iceland. You can also follow my travels on instagram.

I'll post when I can from the road.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lentil keftedes with dill yoghurt

lentil keftedes with dill yoghurt

18 Jan 2016

I've been subscribing to Delicious magazine for a few years. Since Valli Little stepped down as food director, I've not been so keen on the direction the magazine has taken and as I'm running out of space on my shelves I've let my subscription lapse. I still get the magazine delivered to work so as long as I stay employed there (!) I'll be able to check out the magazine.



I looked through the current issue on the train ride home from work and spied these lentil keftedes from the Jamie Oliver magazine. I picked up some spinach, parsley and dill as I already had feta, greek yoghurt and eggs in the fridge. The rest of the ingredients were lurking in the cupboard.



Here's the recipe for you from Delicious Magazine Feb 2016 or Jamie's Magazine Sept/Oct 2015

Lentil Keftedes with Dill Yoghurt - serves 4-6 

Lentil Keftedes
290 ml extra virgin olive oil
200g baby spinach leaves
400g can brown lentils, rinsed and drained
2 eggs
1/2 cup dill leaves, chopped
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
100g feta, crumbled
70g fresh breadcrumbs
Green leaf salad to serve

Heat 2 tbs oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the spinach and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and cook 3-4 minutes or until the spinach has wilted. Transfer to a colander to drain and cool slightly. Squeeze out the excess liquid, then roughly chop. Set aside.

Whiz the lentils in a food processor to a paste. Add 1 egg and whiz until smooth. Transfer to a bowl with the the dill, parsley, feta, breadcrumbs, drained spinach and the remaining egg. Season to taste.

Heat the remaining oil in a large frypan over a medium heat. In batches, scoops tablespoon portions of the keftedes mixture into the hot oil flattening slightly and cook for 3-4 minutes each side until golden and cooked through. Serve the keftedes with a green leaf salad and the dill yoghurt for dipping.



Dill Yoghurt
1/2 cup dill leaves, finely chopped
1 cup thick Greek style yoghurt
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Juice 1/2 lemon
1 tbs olive oil

For the dill yoghurt, place all the ingredients in a bowl. Season then stir to combine. Set aside.



The keftedes made for a quick and tasty Sunday lunch so I'll be adding this recipe to my repertoire.

See you all again next week with something for Australia Day.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon rosemary bundt cake

lemon rosemary bundt cake

30 Jun 2014

I subscribe to Delicious magazine and have for a long time. The recipes are usually easy to follow and don't demand a trip to the shop to source some hard to find ingredient. When the July issue arrived I spied a Jamie Oliver magazine recipe for little lemon cakes topped with a lemon and rosemary syrup. I love my own lemon cake recipe and I'm always a little disappointed when I try another one but but I wondered how it would pair with the lemon and rosemary syrup.





The only way to find out was to try it, so that's what I did.




Whenever I go away on holidays I put all my plants in the bath tub. Most survive but I find my herbs usually don't. Unfortunately my rosemary bush is looking a little worse for wear and I don't think it's going to survive. Here's how it looked before I went away for 5 weeks. I won't show you the after photo because it's looking a bit sad.



The cake in all it's glory topped with the lemon and rosemary syrup.

Here's the recipe for you. The cake recipe is all mine, the syrup from Delicious magazine. This makes a small bundt cake. If you'd like to make a larger version double all the cake and syrup ingredients except for the eggs. You'll need 3 of those but keep the quantity of lemon juice and yoghurt about the same. The cooking time will stay the same.

Lemon and rosemary bundt cake
125g (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened 
100g (3½ oz) caster sugar 
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 egg
¾ cup self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup almond meal
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup plain yoghurt

Method
Grease and flour a small bundt tin. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and mix together with the almond meal. Set to one side.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, lemon rind and caster sugar.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg then gradually mix into butter mixture. If the mixture starts to look curdled, add a spoonful of the flour mixture.

Add the remaining flour mixture into the batter alternating with the lemon juice and yoghurt to make a soft batter. If the batter looks too thick add a little more juice.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake the cake in the oven for 45 – 50 minutes until the top is lightly golden and cake is cooked when tested with a skewer.

Leave the cake to cool for about 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack.

Pour over the lemon and rosemary syrup.

Lemon and rosemary syrup
1 lemon
I rosemary sprig
⅓ cup caster sugar
2 tble water
Optional - extra rosemary leaves/toasted flaked almonds

Peel the lemon and finely shred the peel. Juice the lemon and set the juice to one side.

In a small pan bring water to the boil, and then cook the peel for 1 minute.
Drain the peel and rinse. Return the lemon rind to the pan with the juice, the rosemary sprigs, the sugar, and the water. Bring the mixture to the boil then simmer until the syrup is reduced by half. Remove the rosemary sprigs from the syrup then pour the syrup over the cooled cake.

If desired, decorate the cake with fresh rosemary leaves and some toasted flaked almonds.



I took this into work for morning tea last week and it was very well received but then again they'd not had any baking for the past 6 weeks so maybe they were just hungry.

See you all again later in the week with some more travel photos.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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pronto post - chicken pie

pronto post - chicken pie

15 Apr 2011

The weather is starting to become more autumnal here and as the temperature drops, so my style of cooking changes. Instead of quick to prepare meals, I look towards soups, roasts, pies and casseroles that can be prepared ahead of time and reheated.

I thought I'd try the chicken pie recipe from Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals television series. Of course being me, I had to adjust the recipe a little. I used finely chopped french eschallots instead of the spring onions. I also used chicken thigh fillets in the recipe, as I prefer them to breast fillets and substituted light sour cream for the creme fraiche.

Did the pie take 30 minutes to make? No. Sauteing the eschallots until softened added about 5 minutes to the cooking time. As I used chicken thigh fillets and they take longer to cook than breast fillets, I cooked the chicken mixture for about 10 minutes before placing it in the pie dish 'cos no-one likes to eat uncooked chicken. The pie took 30 minutes to cook in my slow oven, so it probably took closer to 1 hour from start to finish. So how was the pie? Well it's absolutely delicious. So much so, that I'll certainly be adding the recipe to my autumn/winter menu.

It's been another busy week here between work, the gym and Japanese for dinner last night with a friend. It's meant to rain here for most of the weekend but I'm happy to stay home. I have so much cooking to do and now that the dvd has finally arrived in Australia, I'm hoping to watch a few episodes of Mad Men 4.

Enjoy your weekend every-body.

Jillian

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