I am continuing my theme of sharing a bake from a favourite baking or cookbook. Sweet – by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh – is filled with gorgeous recipes from the popular London Ottolenghi restaurants. Everything is so delicious!

Lemon cakes are my absolute faves and this lemon and almond tea cake is both easy to make AND delicious. Ground almonds give the cakes a lovely texture and the lemon is zingy and fresh. You could leave off the lemon icing and just top with a dusting of icing sugar.

Ingredients:

Makes 12 tea cakes

190g unsalted butter at room temperture
190g caster sugar
Grated zest of one lemon
4 large eggs, lightly beaten (200g eggs)
190g ground almonds
45g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
60ml fresh lemon juice

Icing:
160 g icing sugar
2½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan/180C. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin with butter, lightly flour, and set aside. With an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and zest on medium high until light and fluffy. Alternately, add in the eggs and ground almonds. Mix until well blended. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Blend the dry ingredients into the batter just until incorporated. Add in the lemon juice and mix in until the batter comes back together. Spoon the batter evenly into the cups and bake for 27-28 minutes. A cake tester should come up clean. Cool for 10 minutes then carefully tap out the cakes on to a cooling rack so they are upside down. Cool completely before icing.
Blend together the icing sugar and the lemon juice, until you have a smooth but thick icing. Using a small spoon, drizzle the icing on top of each cake, letting it slowly drip down the sides.

Let’s Bake Together!

Our Face to Face Classes have now started.  Click Here to find out more.