This deliciously moist cake, fragrant with saffron and lemon, is unbeatable when served with a couple of spoons of clotted cream or creme fraiche. When baked the smell will fill your home with a flavour of the Mediterranean.
Lemon cake with saffron syrup
Serves 8
200g butter
225g sugar
4 medium eggs
200g ground almonds
A small pinch of turmeric
150g semolina
2tbsp plain flour
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
A pinch of salt
Half tsp baking powder
For the syrup and topping
2 lemons, sliced very thinly
250g caster sugar
A pinch of turmeric
A pinch of saffron
Set the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.
Line a 24cm-diameter cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Place the sliced lemon for the syrup and topping in a saucepan and cover with 500ml water. Bring to the boil over a high heat then drain the slices, cover with water again and bring to the boil. Drain a second time. This blanching process will remove any bitterness from the lemon.
Cover the blanched lemons with 350ml water. Add the sugar, turmeric and saffron and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the peel is soft and the syrup has thickened. Remove from the heat.
Use a fork to lift the lemon slices out of the syrup and layer them, slightly overlapping, all over the base and a little way up the sides of the lined baking tin (the sugar will help them stick in place). You may not need all of the lemon slices. Pour 2tbsp of the syrup over the slices and reserve the rest for later.
Next start the sponge. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer, until well combined but not fluffy – you do not want to aerate the mixture.
Stir in the eggs, ground almonds and turmeric, and then fold in the remaining ingredients. Mix well and pour the mixture into the cake tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30-35 minutes. When done, the cake should be golden and firm. Remove it from the oven and pour the remaining syrup over the top before allowing the cake to rest for 20 minutes.
The cake needs to be turned upside down to serve, so place a plate on top of the tin and flip it over so the bottom is uppermost. Gently remove the tin and the paper then serve.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here