Raymond Blanc's Lemon Cake

A few weeks before I came back to Switzerland, I watched the Cakes and Pastries episode of Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets BBC series. I adore his programmes - his sheer enthusiasm and love for food is wonderful to watch. Though many of the recipes from the show called to me (I used his chocolate crème pâtisserie recipe to fill my last croquembouche), I really wanted to make this lemon cake. I bookmarked the recipe and waited till I got back here.

The day I decided to make the cake I sat down and properly looked at the recipe for the first time. Something seemed wrong - I thought that the method had been more complicated on TV, that perhaps some of the ingredients were whipped to give volume. The recipe didn't state this and I couldn't re-watch it as iPlayer only works in the UK.

So I asked one of my mum's lovely friends to watch the section on the cake and report back (payment in cake to follow). He confirmed that the method was indeed that simple but in doing so, mentioned that on TV Raymond added lemon juice to the mixture. That wasn't in the recipe and the juice of 3 lemons is a lot of extra liquid. I googled the recipe and found a few other blogs that mentioned the discrepancy but nobody had an answer.

And so - in true 2011 style - I tweeted Raymond himself, asking if juice should be added or not. To my utter surprise, he replied:

@poireschocolat You can choose: adding lemon juice makes it more lemony but perhaps a little more dense. It's delicious either way! Best RB

At this point I got pretty excited that RAYMOND BLANC had sent ME a message. I turned hyper and babbled about nothing else for several hours. Twitter has proved itself to me. The next day I went about making the cake, using the juice of one lemon. It was delicious. Even though my glaze doesn't look as perfect as Raymond's.

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Also, I was recently honoured to be included in the pastry section of the Culinary Arts College roundup of Voilà! The Top 40 French Cooking Blogs. Have a look - some wonderful blogs are included.

Lemon Cake

(adapted from Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets, see here)

For the cake:

240g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

5 eggs

300g caster sugar

140ml double cream

zest of 3 lemons

juice of 1 lemon (optional)

1 1/2 tbsp dark rum

pinch salt

80g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease and line a 26x9x8cm loaf tin. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. In another bowl whisk the eggs, sugar, cream, zest, juice, rum, salt and melted butter together. Whisk the sifted flour into the wet mixture. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown, cracked and a toothpick comes out cleanly. Take out of the tin and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Don't turn the oven off yet. 

To glaze:

3 tbsp apricot jam

juice of 1 lemon

150g icing sugar

While the cake is cooling for 10 minutes, warm the jam and then sieve it. Brush the entire cake with the jam and then leave to set for 5 minutes. Heat the juice and icing sugar until they become a clear syrup. Brush the cake with the syrup and leave to set for 2 minutes. Place onto a baking tray and put back into the oven. Turn the heat off and leave to dry for 5 minutes. Take out and leave to cool before eating. 

(Makes about 12-14 slices)

Coconut Cream Cake

Yesterday was my mum's birthday. For the past three years she's had a massive party. The massive parties meant that I made massive cakes (see number one - a giant chocolate raspberry job, number two - four tiers of double chocolate, number three - ginger and blueberry). It's fun looking over them and seeing how much my baking has changed and grown.

This year mum had decided to just have a few people over for tea and have a quiet day (including both of our first-ever facials and manicures - hilarious). I'd been meaning to make this recipe for ages. I've got a bit of a thing for coconut at the moment. The cake recipe is the one I adapted for my Chocolate Swiss Roll with Peanut Butter Mousse - it's unusual but produces incredibly light and delicious results.

About a week ago we went on a lovely little walk in this bit of woodland in the valley. Mum found these beautiful twigs with little cones on them. I thought that they would round out my 'snowy scene' coconut cake perfectly so I carefully transported them home (Arthur wanted to eat them). To keep things hygienic I cleaned the twigs and then tightly wrapped the ends that would come in contact with the cake in clingfilm.  Mum also had two candles placed slightly to the side to blow out. 

I decided to make the cake in a 6" tin to get some height. It shrank a bit when it came out of the oven but still tasted great and the whipped cream filled in the gaps anyway. It's not a particularly neat cake but that's part of the snow-drift charm. I wanted to toast the coconut for flavour but didn't want to ruin the pure white look. Another time I might try and source some coconut shavings - the grated stuff here is pretty fine and so a bit gritty. 

Overall this is a great recipe - it's very light but still packs in flavour. I'll definitely make it again. 

Coconut Cream Cake

(Adapted from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert)

For the coconut filling:

155ml +30ml whole milk

50g sugar

1/4 vanilla bean, split

1 tbsp cornflour

3 medium egg yolks

35g shredded coconut

Combine the 155ml milk with the sugar and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan. Warm over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the milk is hot. Meanwhile whisk the cornflour into the 30ml milk in a small bowl. When the milk is ready, scrape the cornflour mix into the pan and whisk together. Heat until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom. When thick, start whisking the egg yolks together in a medium bowl and pour the thickened mixture in, keeping whisking. Transfer back to the pan and heat until the mixture starts to boil and is very thick. Pour into a medium bowl and stir in the shredded coconut. Leave to cool and then chill in the fridge for several hours (I did this overnight). 

For the rum syrup:

80ml water

50g caster sugar

1 1/2 tbsp dark rum

Place the water and sigar in a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the rum and leave to cool. I boiled the rum first for a moment to remove most of the alcohol for mum. 

For the sponge:

80g plain flour

30g cornflour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3 eggs, separated

35ml cold water

120g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a 6" tin, making sure the parchment reaches up to about 6". Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt together three times. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whip attached, whisk the egg yolks and water together on high speed for 1 minute. Turn down and add the caster sugar, then whip on high until the mixture is pale and thick and leaves a trail when the whisk is lifted - about 5 mins. Put to one side. In another clean, dry bowl (I transferred the first mix to another bowl then washed my mixer bowl as I only have one) whisk the eggs whites until stiff peaks.

Place the yolk mix bowl on a damp cloth to stop it moving. With your non-dominant hand, slowly start sifting the flour mixture into the bowl while your dominant hand folds in with a whisk. When the flour is totally incorporated, add 1/3 of the whites and fold in with a rubber spatula to lighten the mix. Finally add the rest of the whites and fold in until uniform. Pour into the lined tin and smooth the top gently. Place into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until the middle springs back when touched. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then remove to a wire rack.

For the whipped cream:

155ml double cream

1 tsp sugar

Whip the cream until soft peaks then sprinkle in the sugar. Whisk in the sugar but be careful to not overwhisk - it should be soft and pillowy. 

To assemble:

handful grated or shaved coconut

Slice the sponge into three layers and place one piece on the serving plate. Sprinke 1/3 of the rum syrup over the sponge.  Spread half of the filling over the sponge. Repeat with the next layer. Add the final sponge and sprinkle the remaining 1/3 syrup over the top. Leave to chill in the fridge for 4 hours. When ready to serve, whip the cream and spread it over the cake. Sprinkle the coconut over the top. I then had to sort of throw coconut at the sides - if I'd tried to press it I would have had a handful of cream. When covered add any candles/decorations and serve. Best eaten on the day. 

(Serves 8-10)