Raymond Blanc's Lemon Cake

I'm off to Newcastle tomorrow! Well, today really. I'm looking forward to it a lot, and the weather forecast is good! There's also a cake festival while I'm up there, which makes me very happy!

This makes a good end to a week which has been fairly frustrating. I frequently wish that I could be in charge of my moods instead of capricious chemicals in my brain! My small group once again rescued me tonight. If I've baked a lot I've either had a bad couple of days, or I've turned slightly hyper... I turned up with strawberry and chocolate tarts, ginger cupcakes, lemon tarts, jam tarts, and lemon cake. At least my response to life is one that makes other people happy. So we ate a lot of cake and I got lots of hugs :)

Anyway, I felt I had to share this recipe as it is utterly divine. One would expect no less from Raymond Blanc! I decided to make it for the first time after I watched his Kitchen Secrets, so this was my second go. I took a few photos, but it's a pleasantly straightforward recipe.

You need a 26x9x8 (ish!) loaf tin

Ingredients:
5 eggs,
11 oz caster sugar
5 fluid oz double cream
3 lemons, zest only
1 1/2 tbsp dark rum (I don't have any so I just left it out)
1 pinch salt
3 oz unsalted butter, melted
8 1/2 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp apricot jam, warmed (or lemon curd if you prefer, which I used this time)

Lemon glaze:
1 lemon, zest and juice
5 oz icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180C

2. Butter tin and line with greaseproof paper

3. Whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, sugar, cream, rum, salt and melted butter. It'll form a nice smooth mix.

4. Sift the four and baking powder into a separate bowl, then whisk into the egg mixture until it's a smooth batter.

5. Pour batter into tin and bake for 50-60 mins, turning halfway through cooking. 

Now, here's where it sounds more complicated, but it's not, and there's not really any hurrying involved, which is always nice.

Once it's cooked.....
6. Remove from oven but leave oven on.

7. Turn cake out onto cooling rack and leave for 10 mins.

8. Place cake onto a baking tray and brush with warm apricot jam, or lemon curd and then leave for 5 mins while you make the lemon glaze

9. Heat the lemon zest, juice and icing sugar in a pan or microwave until the sugar has dissolved and you have a syrup. (I thought I'd done that, but when I tasted the glaze after it was still grainy, so I think you need to heat it more. But on the other hand, mine tasted and look pretty darn good!)

10. Brush the lemon glaze all over the cake (mine was a bit more liquidy than his was in the episode and it dribbled everywhere)

11. Put cake back into the oven but TURN THE OVEN OFF! and leave for 3-5 mins to dry the glaze and turn it translucent

12. Remove cake from oven and leave to cool to room temperate before serving.

Best eaten with a cup of tea. Seriously. This is an awesome recipe. I bow to Raymond Blanc's sheer fabulousness.