Sometimes I find myself trying a recipe and then, for some reason, doing nothing with it and leaving it in the drawer for later use. That’s what happened with this lemon and rose drizzle mini cakes. I tried this recipe as a loaf cake probably more than a year ago, I liked it and then absolutely did nothing about it.
Until recently when I was trying to find something sweet to bake for lunch to offer to the lovely people who attended my Christmas baking class. To make it prettier, I tweaked the recipe, turned the loaf into individual mini cakes (thanks to this amazing baking tray from Masterclass) and decorated it with some edible rose petals and sugar nibs.
They came out so pretty and went down so well that I made them again a couple of weeks after the class, to bring to a Christmas lunch with friends. Again, literally disappeared in a very short amount of time. Clear signal I should post this recipe on the blog.
I always loved a good lemon drizzle. I mean, who doesn’t? And yet, I wanted to add something to it and make something different. That’s when the idea of adding some floral notes came along and I tried using rose water.
If you ever watched any baking shows on TV, you will have probably seen bakes going wrong because of the overpowering flavour of floral essences. Add too much, and your lovely cake will turn into soap, or potpourri. For this reason, I initially went really easy with adding the rose water, until I found the amount I though was right to balance the lemon flavour.
The best bit of making a single portion version is that the drizzle really soaks all the way through, and the cakes stay moist and tender for days. Plus, look at them, they are so simple yet quite elegant and original in flavour. Perfect as an afternoon tea item.
The base recipe is a four quarter cake, so super simple to make with equal weight of eggs, flour, butter and sugar. So no excuses. Try it and let me know what your think.
Like lemon flavour? Why don’y try my lemon curd muffins or these salted caramel and lemon jam sandwich biscuits.
Makes 10 single cakes or 1 loaf
Ingredients
FOR THE SPONGE
- 3 medium eggs, weighed with the shell
- Unsalted butter, at room temperature (same weight as the eggs)
- Caster sugar (same weight as the eggs)
- Plain flour (same weigh as the eggs), less 2 Tbsp
- 2 Tbsp of corn flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Paste/Extract
- Zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons
- 1/2 tsp salt
FOR THE DRIZZLE & DECORATION
- Juice of two large lemons (the zested ones)
- 180g icing sugar
- 1/2 Tsp rose water
- Sugar nibs and edible rose petals, to finish
Method
- Add the butter to a large bowl and, using wooden spoon or a spatula, beat it to loosen it up and obtain a nice cream. Add the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and lemon zest and mix until combined and smooth. At this point add the flours and baking powder and slowly incorporate to obtain a smooth batter. Alternatively, if using a stand mixer, add all the ingredients to the bowl and mix on low with the paddle attachment until just combined. You don’t want to overwork the mixture.
- Heat up the oven to 190 C. Butter a loaf tin or individual moulds, according to what you are using. Fill up the moulds with the cake batter until three/quarters the way up, and carefully ensure the batter is evenly filling the mould.
- Bake for 15 minutes until the mini cakes start gettin golden on the top. Test with a skewer to ensure it comes out clean, which means they are baked all the way through. If making a large loaf, bake for 30/35 minutes at 175C.
- While the cakes bake, make the drizzle. Add the sugar to a small saucepan, over a medium heat. Juice the lemons through a strainer and add to the sugar. Add the rose water and leave to gently warm up. This will make it easier to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, just remove from the heat. and set aside.
- Once the cakes are ready, take them out of the oven and, while still warm, poke a few holes in one and pour over a couple of table spoons of the drizzle. Repeat with all the other cakes, and then carry on until you have used up all the drizzle liquid. Leave to cool in the mould and come to room temperature.
- Decorate with sugar nibs and edible rose petals, and serve immediately. Enjoy!!