Lemon Frosted Pound Cake, Blond in Amsterdam and Pizza
June 2, 2006 at 6:22 PM
by Ashleigh
Lemon Frosted Pound CakeI find it difficult to write today. I followed a link from another blog to an article which advised blog writers to be succinct. Now everything I write seems overblown and florid. Yuck. I'll press on regardless ;)
I was surprised to find one of the books from my amazon.co.uk order in my letterbox this morning. So firmly in my letterbox in fact that in order to extract it I almost fell over backward. The postman had wedged it in and it seems like he's vertical-rowing and lat-pulling a lot more weight than I am because it was almost impossible for me to release it. I triumphed and the book is now unwrapped, and read eagerly from cover to cover while I was waiting for a doctor's appointment.
I ordered The Food Processor Bible by Norene Gilletz and I'm pleased with my purchase. The recipes don't excite me any more than any other recipes would. What I do find interesting is that there are so many tips for how not to end up with mush in the bottom of the processor. My mom never owned a processor so I had never used one until I got mine - a Magimix 3100. I use it a lot, but I was sure I could do more with it, which is why this book has been on my amazon wishlist for almost a year! I'll try some recipes and report back.
Yesterday I was inspired by the lemons in my fruitbowl to make a lemon-frosted pound cake. I have a wonderful recipe that I made often in South Africa but have never made whilst living either here or in England. I wonder why? Lemons being more expensive in Europe maybe? My mom and dad had a lemon tree which bore those wonderful thick bumpy skinned lemons. Mmm. The thought of those lemons on that tree has me bathed in African sunshine.
Lemon Frosted Pound Cake : Annette Kessler - Learn to Cook ISBN 0-79-3568-9For the cake
250g butter
250g caster sugar
2 - 3 tsp grated lemon peel
4 extra-large eggs
375g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250 ml (1 cup) milk
For the frosting
juice of 1 - 2 large lemons
200g icing sugar, sieved
- Cream the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat the mixture until its light and creamy.
- Mix in the grated lemon peel. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Add milk to butter mixture, alternating with flour mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Do not overbeat.
- Pour into a well-greased and floured 24 cm diameter cake pan or into a ring pan.
- Place the pan just below the centre of the oven and bake at 160C for about one and three quarter hours until the cake is firm and golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out dry.
- Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for ten minutes. Loosen gently around edges, spread a clean cloth on a rack and turn cake out onto the rack. Immediately turn it rounded side up. If you don't it could crack. Use a second clean cloth as a guide.
- Blend lemon juice and sugar together and pour over the hot cake allowing it to drip down the sides. I find this is too runny so add the lemon juice to the sugar until the icing is at a consistency you like.
I made this yesterday and although it turned out differently to the ones I had made before it's still nice. I blame the difference in texture on the sugar (not caster sugar) and flour (all purpose rather than cake flour). I had to make a cake for the teddy bears too. Those bears will be celebrating their centenary before long ...
I realised after making pizza last night with my ordinary pizza recipe that I can't go back to it after trying Peter Reinhart's napoletana pizza dough recipe which was published on 101 Cookbooks. The latter takes longer to make but its much more inspiring, and even though it means planning ahead properly, you can always make extra dough and freeze it.
Today in a department store I came across a display of housewares from Blond in Amsterdam, which reminded me to blog about their designs. I'm lucky enough to have some of their soup bowls that were designed for Maggi (brand name) and which one could collect by cutting coupons. I saw today that they have a new range of linens out including some very cute tea towels and aprons. Maybe my not-so-secret stitcher will be getting a little taste of Blond in Amsterdam.
Tonight's dinner is chicken baked with new potatoes and peas followed by cherry clafoutis. Yum.
Comments
Can I have some pls? that looks too good!
Your pound cake sounds yummy. I have some lemons lying here and I might try it today. The lemons were bought to garnish the Pims at my birthday party last week :-) better to make pound cake which everyone will eat them to use them up finishing the bottle of Pims by myself! I too, remember having a lemon tree in our yard. Lovely. I will try the pound cake with spelt four and let you know how it came out.
I am in North Carolina usa. I remember a pound cake that had a light almost see through icing. what is frosting sugar. The only sugar I know is white granulated or confection sugar? Thanks for any help.Kathy
Hi Kathy: I think icing sugar is the same as what you call powdered sugar!
YUM! I'm making this one, it looks great!
Thanks for stopping by my blog too and leaving such nice words about Mibala. If you (or rather your son!) are really keen I plan to put Mibalas in the shop, so you can let me know if you'd like to place an order.
June 3, 2006 11:59 PM