Lemons add inspiration to many a bake, but this time try it in combination with an orange: the unlikely alliance of sweetness and sharpness is a baker's delight
I love citrus in baking. There's no better antidote to the heaviness of a cuisine based on fat, egg, flours and sugar than a spritz of citrus or a pinch of peel. It's a shame, then, that it's not more imaginatively deployed – I'm as guilty as anyone of just wheeling out the lemon as an all-purpose tool for brightening a cake. We can do better by our citrus than this.
Rather than just throwing any old zest at a recipe, try pairing contrasting citrus fruits for a fuller, more balanced flavour. In the recipes below, oranges and lemons work in harmony. Sunny orange mellows lemon's sharpness, while lemon counters the insipid sweetness that orange can bring. There's no jarring clang of citrus heavyweights here: they really do chime.
*St Clement's cake*
"Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's"– so the old rhyme goes. This cake takes seriously the promises of its namesake, bursting with orange and lemon zest and drenched in sharp syrup. When making a drizzle cake I see no point in doing it by halves: it ought to be damp, almost sticky, and excitingly tart. So this cake is baked in a shallow tin, allowing the syrup to permeate every last crumb. There are few kitchen sights sadder than a deep-tin drizzle cake which is sodden on top with a bone dry bottom.
The semolina here is an important addition, lending texture, soaking up the syrup and giving a sunnily, exuberantly yellow crumb. If you can't find it in the supermarket, however, you can leave it out, instead increasing the amount of plain flour to 125g total to compensate.
Serves 6
*125g unsalted butter*
*125g caster sugar*
*2 large eggs*
*Zest of 2 lemons, and juice of one*
*Zest and juice of 1 orange*
*100g semolina*
*60g plain flour*
*1 tsp baking powder*
*A pinch of salt*
*80g caster or granulated sugar*
*1 *Preheat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3½ and grease an 20cm-diameter round, loose-bottomed cake tin. If not loose-bottomed, be sure to line the base with greaseproof paper.
*2 *Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, orange and lemon zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice (reserve the remaining juice for the syrup, to be made later).
*3 *In a separate bowl, combine the semolina, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Spoon into the prepared tin, smooth the top and bake for 25 minutes (or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean).
*4 *While the cake is baking, make the syrup. Combine the remaining lemon juice, the orange juice and the 80g sugar over a low heat. Let it bubble for a few minutes, or until it looks a bit more … well, syrupy. Take off the heat.
*5* As soon as the cake is out the oven, pierce it through with a fork or skewer a few times and spoon over the syrup, giving it time to seep into the cake. Leave to cool completely before serving.
* Orange and lemon coconut biscuits *
It's a triple citrus hit in these chewy coconut rounds. Although coconut has a tendency to be blandly sweet, here the flavour has been lifted by orange, lemon and citrussy cardamom. These are a far cry from the terminally beige biscuits we've grown used to. Instead, they're bright, light, and unlikely to be left languishing at the bottom of the biscuit tin.
Makes 20
*110g butter*
*170g caster sugar*
*1 large egg*
*Zest 1 lemon*
*Zest 1 orange*
*150g plain flour*
*½ tsp bicarbonate of soda*
*¼ tsp salt*
*8 cardamom pods, seeds only, ground*
*100g desiccated coconut*
*1* Preheat the oven to 180C/250F/gas mark 4 and line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment.
*2* Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the egg then add the orange and lemon zest.
*3* In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ground cardamom. Stir this into the wet ingredients, then fold in the desiccated coconut.
*4* Use two teaspoons to heap little mounds of batter onto the lined trays, spacing them well apart as they'll spread during the bake. You may have to bake them in a couple of batches if they won't all fit in at once.
*5 *Bake the biscuits for 13 minutes and cool on a wire rack. Reported by guardian.co.uk 20 hours ago.
I love citrus in baking. There's no better antidote to the heaviness of a cuisine based on fat, egg, flours and sugar than a spritz of citrus or a pinch of peel. It's a shame, then, that it's not more imaginatively deployed – I'm as guilty as anyone of just wheeling out the lemon as an all-purpose tool for brightening a cake. We can do better by our citrus than this.
Rather than just throwing any old zest at a recipe, try pairing contrasting citrus fruits for a fuller, more balanced flavour. In the recipes below, oranges and lemons work in harmony. Sunny orange mellows lemon's sharpness, while lemon counters the insipid sweetness that orange can bring. There's no jarring clang of citrus heavyweights here: they really do chime.
*St Clement's cake*
"Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's"– so the old rhyme goes. This cake takes seriously the promises of its namesake, bursting with orange and lemon zest and drenched in sharp syrup. When making a drizzle cake I see no point in doing it by halves: it ought to be damp, almost sticky, and excitingly tart. So this cake is baked in a shallow tin, allowing the syrup to permeate every last crumb. There are few kitchen sights sadder than a deep-tin drizzle cake which is sodden on top with a bone dry bottom.
The semolina here is an important addition, lending texture, soaking up the syrup and giving a sunnily, exuberantly yellow crumb. If you can't find it in the supermarket, however, you can leave it out, instead increasing the amount of plain flour to 125g total to compensate.
Serves 6
*125g unsalted butter*
*125g caster sugar*
*2 large eggs*
*Zest of 2 lemons, and juice of one*
*Zest and juice of 1 orange*
*100g semolina*
*60g plain flour*
*1 tsp baking powder*
*A pinch of salt*
*80g caster or granulated sugar*
*1 *Preheat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3½ and grease an 20cm-diameter round, loose-bottomed cake tin. If not loose-bottomed, be sure to line the base with greaseproof paper.
*2 *Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, orange and lemon zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice (reserve the remaining juice for the syrup, to be made later).
*3 *In a separate bowl, combine the semolina, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Spoon into the prepared tin, smooth the top and bake for 25 minutes (or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean).
*4 *While the cake is baking, make the syrup. Combine the remaining lemon juice, the orange juice and the 80g sugar over a low heat. Let it bubble for a few minutes, or until it looks a bit more … well, syrupy. Take off the heat.
*5* As soon as the cake is out the oven, pierce it through with a fork or skewer a few times and spoon over the syrup, giving it time to seep into the cake. Leave to cool completely before serving.
* Orange and lemon coconut biscuits *
It's a triple citrus hit in these chewy coconut rounds. Although coconut has a tendency to be blandly sweet, here the flavour has been lifted by orange, lemon and citrussy cardamom. These are a far cry from the terminally beige biscuits we've grown used to. Instead, they're bright, light, and unlikely to be left languishing at the bottom of the biscuit tin.
Makes 20
*110g butter*
*170g caster sugar*
*1 large egg*
*Zest 1 lemon*
*Zest 1 orange*
*150g plain flour*
*½ tsp bicarbonate of soda*
*¼ tsp salt*
*8 cardamom pods, seeds only, ground*
*100g desiccated coconut*
*1* Preheat the oven to 180C/250F/gas mark 4 and line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment.
*2* Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the egg then add the orange and lemon zest.
*3* In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ground cardamom. Stir this into the wet ingredients, then fold in the desiccated coconut.
*4* Use two teaspoons to heap little mounds of batter onto the lined trays, spacing them well apart as they'll spread during the bake. You may have to bake them in a couple of batches if they won't all fit in at once.
*5 *Bake the biscuits for 13 minutes and cool on a wire rack. Reported by guardian.co.uk 20 hours ago.