Lovely lemon

Lemons are wonderful.  Their colour makes me smile, the smell of the rind is heavenly, not to mention the blossoms (hence my apprehension for my lemon tree), but the true marvel is the taste.  It's to die for.  When I was little my grandmother used to make a delicious drink that we called "sítrón" and everyone else knows as lemon aid.  I still love that.  But lemons can be used in so many things, both savory and sweet, and there is one thing that tops my list.  This lemon cake.

I found it in a wonderful book, by Molly Wizenberg, called "A homemade life".  The book is one of those books that feels good.  It has a quiet unassuming look, but somthing appealed to me when I pulled it out of the shelf at the book store.  I wasn't disappointed. It's just a lovely read and it's packed with all sorts of great recipes.

This has become an absolute favorite of mine.  And everyone who has tasted it has marvelled.  It's going to be the wedding cake at my daughters wedding. That's how good it is.  It's light and delicious and in my opinion it should be served with whipped cream.  I don't know what it is that happens when whipped cream is added, but the result is pure magic. And please use pure whipped cream - NO sugar added to it (I have never understood that) because it will loose the delicious delicate creamy taste.

The recipe is in three parts, batter, syrup and icing.
Batter:
1 1/2 cup of flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Put these into a bowl and whisk by hand to mix.  Add to this 2 tsp. of freshly grated lemon zest and mix well. 
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt
3 large eggs
Put all into the mixer and whisk it well.  Add the flour mixture from the bowl, slowly and stir it only so that it combines.  This batter should not be over mixed.
Now add 1/2 cup sunflower oil to the batter.
Molly warn about this, but I still wasn't prepared.  Don't freak out!  It will look VERY strange at first, but suddenly it will come together and look like proper cake batter.
I always use a Bundt form (that's the type with a hole in it) for this cake, it just looks so pretty.  So I grease it and pour in the batter.  
Bake at 175 celcius (350 F) for 25-35 minutes, but do a test with a pin because it shouldn't be too dry.
It usually falls easily out of the form and onto a wire rack to cool.
Syrup:
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
Whisk together and spoon evenly onto the cake.  This will mostly be absorbed by the cake.
The last part is the icing.  The recipe in the book calls for one cup of sugar.  My preference is to have the icing fairly opaque and thick so I use a lot more.
Icing:
2-3 cups icing sugar
3 tbs. lemon juice
Whisk together sugar and egg whites adding sugar until you like the consitency.  Spoon the icing onto the cake.
Et voilá!  
The decoration in the photo was my first attempt at making sugared flowers and of course I used lemon flowers from my little lemon tree and for the leaves I used Melissa.  I have since discovered that one should whisk the egg whites :)  before covering the flower with it and then roll it in the sugar.  I thought it was strangely lumpy!  Elementary, when one comes to think about it. 


I am looking for some more recipes for light delicious summery cakes for the wedding and would love suggestions.



The photo: Real lemon blossom from my very own Lemon tree that almost died, eaten alive my spider mites.  I've learned since that one is to beat the eggwhites before covering the flower.   Which makes sense to me now.