Roasted Lemon Cake

I had this cake recipe carefully filed away and being a lover of lemon flavoured cooking, I recently decided to give it a try.
It is a total winner and it looks pretty posh too! Today I made it for the 5th time in about as many weeks. It seems to appeal to most as no-one I know dislikes lemons. ( In the process of collecting my fruit I've stripped our lemon tree bare but thankfully little green ones are starting to appear).
It is a great dessert but it would be just as fabulous as a special cake for that special afternoon tea.
The original recipe included a lavender syrup to drizzle/serve on top but I decided it was so divine the way it was I would not include the syrup.
At first, I methodically thinly sliced my lemons - by hand, and it took ages- but I eventually caught on that this labourious task could be done by my Kitchen Whizz in super quick time.
Also, each time I have made this cake I've varied what sugar I used, raw sugar gives a more intense flavour but castor sugar is fine too. One time I ran out of ground almonds so used unblanched raw ones and used my Kitchen Whizz with the 'grinding nuts attachment' to grind the almonds into almond meal. This gave the mixture and the final product a sort of wholemeal look which was a nice variance on the recipe.
I made the cake again today as tonight we have dear friends from Napier coming for dinner, I know they are going to enjoy this as much as we do......

 Roasted Lemon Cake

Cuisine - Celia Harvey – 20/8/2009

Lemons

4 large unwaxed lemons

6 tbsp sugar

 For the Cake

100grams flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 grams ground almonds

175 grams softened butter

175 grams caster sugar

4 eggs, beaten

Method

For the lemons

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a spring form cake tin (23cm) with baking paper and butter or spray the sides well.

Thinly slice the lemons (I use the slicing plane on my Kitchen Whizz). Take out any pips.

Place the lemon slices on a baking dish, sprinkle with ½ the sugar and roast for about 10 minutes until lightly caramelised around the edges.

Arrange ¾ of the lemon slices in the base of the tin. And sprinkle the remaining sugar over.

For the cake

Reduce the oven to 160°C. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the almonds.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Mix the eggs in one at a time, sprinkle in a little of the flour mix as you go to stop it splitting. Fold in the rest of the flour mixture, chop the remaining lemon pieces and fold them in with any juice from the roasting dish.

Spread the batter over the roasted lemons in the tin. Bake on a rack in the centre of the oven for 40 minutes. (Watch and cover the top with tinfoil to prevent it browning too much). Leave to cool for 15 minutes before turning out of the tin.

Serve with cream.

Roasted Lemon Cake placed on a pedestal where it belongs

Newsflash!  As a Food Blogger I have been asked to sample the new Whittakers White Rasberry Chocolate - oh the joy when it arrived in the post. My feedback will be placed soon, I haven't quite finished the block so more time and much more deliberation is required.....