Lemon Griestorte

 

So... we are moving! No not moving to another country, although at this point that's how i feel. Ro has been wanting to move out of central London into the suburbs for, well, bigger house, more space, not wanting to stare into the neighbours rooms, countryside a stones throw away and so on. I on the other hand have been clinging on to our conveniently located apartment and every time Ro brought up moving I'd retaliate and it would end up in a fight. And then it happened. The owners decided to sell the apartment and in 4 days it got sold. So we had no choice but to take that decision to finally move out. On one hand i want a bigger house, more space to store my junk etc etc, but on the other i really don't care about a larger place..its just more difficult to maintain and I'm so not a suburb girl, im a hard core city girl..which makes me realise after 9 years how different Ro and I are. Why did we not talk about things like this when we were courting?

So yes, we are moving to the other end of London (well, if i can still call it London), to Amersham. It is a beautiful lil place, the kind i love- quaint cafes, nice shops, no high street brands etc etc. But its on the last possible stop on the Metropolitan line, is an easy 45 minute to an hour trek into c. London and worse of all, i have to start driving. I have been so used to hopping on a bus from right in front of my apartment and now with this move i have to drive and do all the formalities that come with it. I thought i'd left behind driving and traffic back in India!

 

Ro and I have been arguing ever since this move has come up because unlike all other men, Ro needs to have an opinion about every thing. Even what frikking colour the table cloth should be. We have been looking at houses to buy and have given us till end of the year to settle on something. I have been pinning things for 'the' home right from when Pinterest came into existence and Ro (being all technical and practical and bloody irritating to the core) has just taken all the fun out of setting up a new home. I know, its a long way off, so i have, for the moment decided to back off and cross the bridge when i get to it. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to notice I'm upset and angry and has conveniently gone about figuring things out on his own!!!!

Anyhoo, we move end of the month and it takes 3 weeks to get a darn Internet connection, so this is going to be my last post for a while. I baked this cake to take to a friends and it was well received. It screams of summer (wishful thinking) and takes absolutely no time to bake. Its apparently a German cake and gries means semolina. I baked it twice in a weeks time and that says a lot about the cake. Its quite versatile in the sense you can change the flavours from lemon to orange to passion fruit to plain vanilla, fill with fruits of choice, and end up with a gorgeous cake. There is no rising agent or oil or butter, its purely the eggs that give it the light and airy texture. Don't deflate the eggs and more importantly, don't over cook. If you feel that the cake springs back to the touch, just take it out of the oven irrespective of the time.

Recipe adapted from here

 

Eggs- 3 large, separated

Caster sugar- 110 gms

Lemon juice- of half a large lemon

Vanilla extract- 1/4 tsp (optional)

Lemon zest- of one large lime

Fine semolina- 50 gms

Powdered almonds- 1 tbsp

Double cream- 150 ml

Icing sugar- 1 tbsp 

Vanilla extract- 1/4 tsp

Lemon curd- 3 tbsp

Pre-heat oven to 180C, grease and line a 9 x 2 inch jelly roll pan (or 2 6 inch cake pans) with baking paper

Place the separated egg yolk into a large bowl and whisk well with the caster sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract till they turn pale and thick. I just whisked using a wire whisk but feel free to use a hand blender or free standing mixer.

Fold in the lemon zest, semolina and powdered almonds gently and keep aside. A spatula makes this easier.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until soft peaks form. A hand blender or a free standing mixer with whisk attachment is advised or else you'd just end up with aching arms. That said, I've done it a few times before and its not as bad as it sounds.

Using a spatula fold the egg white into the yolk mix gently, making sure you don't deflate the batter.

Transfer the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake in the centre rack of the oven for about 17 minutes for the jelly roll pan and about 20 minutes for the 6 inch cake pans. Make sure you don't over cook or it becomes tough. 

Its done when you gently press down the cake with your finger and it springs right back.

Take out of the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes after which you can turn it out on to a cooling rack, peel off the baking paper and leave to cool completely.

Use a round cutter to cut out mini cakes of your choice and assemble. 

For the filling, whip the double cream with icing sugar and vanilla extract till peaks form, again make sure you don't over do this or it will start to curdle.

Place the cake on a plate and spread the lemon curd generously.

Top with the whipped cream, spread it around, it really doesn't need to be all even.

Top with the second cake, sift some icing sugar on top and serve.

Notes: The cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring it to room temperature before serving (if its not too warm) if possible.

The sponge can be made a day or two ahead , cooled, cling wrapped and kept in a container till ready to assemble.

Cooking time is crucial for a sponge cake. I  took mine out in about 18 minutes and it had cooked a bit too much already. However, when i did the layer cake the first time, it took me 20 minutes and it was perfect consistency.

From the above measurement you'd get only around 3 cakes, and the rest of the cake was eaten up on its own. I suggest you double the recipe if you wanted to serve it as a dessert for a larger group. I did this method for some variety, but i strongly suggest the layer cake if you wanted to serve at a party. It would serve 6 to 7 people.

Replace the lemon curd with any curd of choice- mango, passion fruit etc.

Brownie butter cake

Brownie and a butter cake together. Need i say more? Yeah, didn't think so. Every other day Ro asks me, whats for dessert, do we have cake, whats for tea and the answer to this most of the time is, er chocolates? fruit? He gets distracted with those options most of the time, but otherwise he makes a face and pretends like I've deprived him of his basic necessities.

I made my custard cake sometime last month on a whim, (mostly to finish off the last of the custard powder and baking soda that had gone past expiry) and I wasn't sure it would work because expired baking soda fetches the most horrid cakes. To my surprise however, this one turned out so so good, much better than the first time and it stayed perfectly moist at room temperature for about 5 days- all i did was cover the cake pan with foil.

 

I put Ro through the torture of watching Great British Bake Off and about 2 weeks back on a Sunday evening he wanted to eat cake and trying to get me off the couch challenged me to bake a cake in 1 hr. He did the whole GBBO intro line and all, and me like an idiot fell for it. So i got around baking my mums beat and bake chocolate cake- a cake id grown up with, but never managed to get right for some strange reason. This time I was so hasty with the recipe and couldn't care if it turned out nice or not cos 1- I'm not a chocolate cake fan and 2- Ro would eat anything with chocolate, no matter how it turns out. Surprise, surprise I'd made the most perfect chocolate cake in less than an hour. I was so proud of myself, not because i did it in time, but because i managed to get the taste bang on- the taste of the cake just as i remember from my childhood. Needless to say, the husband polished it all off in no time.

Since the cake luck was prevailing right now, I decided to bake a cake again, today. When I'm in the cake baking mood, its almost always a new recipe I put to test (along with my patience). I'd bookmarked Bee's brownie butter cake ages back and had completely forgotten about it till this morning when i was scouting my bookmarked list. I checked if i had all the ingredients, and except for brown sugar, i had all the other things needed. I still decided to go ahead, substituting brown sugar for demerara sugar.

I initially thought it was going to take time, but nope, had it all done in under an hour again and its a cake that can actually make someone say wow. I am not a big fan of brownies, so i really didn't care too much for that layer, but omg the butter cake was so so good. Moist like nobody's business and so darn tasty. I must remember to make just that one of these days.

Recipe adapted from here

 

For the brownie base

Dark chocolate- 140 gms, chopped into small pieces

Unsalted butter- 50 gms

Demerera sugar- 50 gms

Egg- 1, at room temperature

Plain flour- 35 gms

For the butter cake

Unsalted butter- 120 gms, at room temperature

Granulated sugar- 100 gms

Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Eggs- 2, at room temperature

Plain flour- 120 gms

Baking powder- 1/2 tsp

Milk- 50 ml

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 20 x 10 cm loaf pan with baking paper.

On a bain marie melt the chocolate and butter till nice and smooth.

Take it off heat, leave aside for a couple of minutes and into it add the sugar. Whisk well

Break the egg into it, and beat till well combined.

Pour into the greased and lined loaf pan and chuck into the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes

While the brownie is baking, get on with the butter cake.

Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till light and fluffy. You can either use a hand held blender or a spatula. I wanted it to be as simple as possible, so i didn't use my free standing mixer. Feel free to do so.

In goes the vanilla extract followed by eggs one after the other, beating well after each addition. The mix may look a bit curdled, but don't worry, the flour would sort this out.

Whisk together the plain flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and add it to the batter, alternating with the milk. 

Once the brownie comes out of the oven, reduce heat to 160C and pour the cake batter on top and immediately even it out with a spatula.

Chuck it back into the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Once done, cool the cake on a rack and let the cake settle before slicing.

Notes: Like i mentioned earlier i didn't have brown sugar, so used demerara instead. Please use brown sugar if you have it.

The brownie bit was still very gooey when i cut into it around 15 minutes later. But was fine when i went back to slice it around an hour later. Yes it was torture waiting to dig in. Using a serrated knife helps.

The cake batter when poured on top of the hot brownie melts immediately. Don't panic, just don't wait but try and do the deed as quickly as possible.