Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake

(For those who want to skip straight to a copy of the recipe, just go here and use raspberries instead of lemons)

Cricket season has arrived in Edinburgh. What this means is that once a week I take my eldest over to our local grounds for practice. With the sun shining, the children all in their cricket whites, and just the sound of bats hitting their targets, I feel both excited and guilty about being part of it. The pitch is situated in one of the more affluent parts of town, overlooked by a grand mansion with multiple bay windows and a vast garden extending down a steep slope. The views from the pitch extend over to Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags and are magnificent in the evening light. Outside are parked family Mercs, Audis, and Range Rovers, and inside the walls lean custom made bicycles that have secure garage storage when at home. Meanwhile the clubhouse itself is just a glorified shed and the club members are prodominantly middle class folk who lean towards the upper end of the spectrum, many obviously eager to climb up, up, up to the top 1%. The club do not discriminate in their members; places are awarded on a first come, first serve basis, but not many working class folk are in the area. So yeah, it all feels just a tad elitist, just not as blatant as an invitation only country club.

I don't have a new coat, a fancy bike, or a flashy car to show off, so instead I bring culinary creations to prove my worth. You see, part of the charm of the place is a folding table set up at the side, quietly selling tea, coffee, juice, and homemade cakes. Parents nibble delicacies and sip tea on wooden benches as they watch their sons practice (yes, all boys, somehow no girls have expressed interest in joining our local club), then at the end a swarm of young men surround the table to clear it of every last crumb, thrusting their 50 pence pieces at whichever overwhelmed mother has been pulled into duty that week. I have carefully avoided the baking table's rota, telling myself if I just bring cake every week I will have fulfilled my duties as a cricket mother without having to endure excessive smalltalk.

But what to bring? Last week I delivered some chocolate chip cookies which disappeared quickly, but I discovered the other day that somehow I'd managed to hide 5 different bags of raspberries in my freezer.  This meant whatever I made this week would have to be dotted with these berries in order to clear out space for the two monstrous bags of Costco chicken nuggets I had more recently shoved inside (don't judge). Aiming for a show-off factor, I pulled down my fleur de lis bundt tin. All it takes is a lot of oiling (hello, cooking spray, where were you when I needed you this week) a lot of cooling, and some tupperware to transport it and BOOM, you've got yourself a fancy cake. It can taste like sawdust, but people will still ooh and aah when they see it.

I only grabbed my i-device once I'd put it in the tin, as I was in a wee bit of a rush, but I just loved the look of the batter so much I had to take a photo. Berries make things look pretty.

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Then in it went. As the berries were still frozen, and I had limited time, I cranked up the heat 30 degrees higher (Celcius) than the recipe said and chanced my luck. After an hour, it looked like this, which was good because the last time I made it at the lower temp it took over an hour and a half to cook through.

A few hours cooling, then I turned it out onto some parchment paper. A couple parts had stuck, but not too disastrously.

Then a quick stirring of lemon juice and icing sugar for a runny glaze. "IT'S DRIPPING!!!" my three year old son warned me. I reassured him that I meant for it to happen that way, but he just eyed me with great skepticism.

For the record, this is what it looked last time I made it with the slower cooking time and temp...and a more runny glaze:

Off it went to cricket. My pride climbed to unhealthy heights when I saw it was the cake that all the adults chose to consume with their evening cuppa. I don't have a photo of the what it looks like when you slice into it, but it really is inviting: golden cake dotted with fresh red raspberries. My cake lady status was preserved.

The meticulously copied and pasted recipe is below

INGREDIENTS

SERVINGS 12UNITS US

• 1cup butter, softened
• 2cups sugar
• 3eggs
• 3tablespoons lemon juice, divided
• 1lemon, zested
• 2 1⁄2cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1⁄2teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2teaspoon salt
• 8ounces plain Greek yogurt or 8 ounces vanilla, greek yogurt
• 12ounces raspberries
• 1cup powdered sugar

dIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325*. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Toss the raspberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Lemon Brownies...that are lemony but not like brownies

I've been on Pinterest again. I was looking to try something new, something different, and I saw a recipe I'd pinned ages ago for some "lemon brownies". Clicking on it, the link was outdated and broken, but I googled a bit more and found a separate recipe.

"These should be great!" I thought. "They'll be chewy and fudgy like a brownie, but with the zest of lemon flavour! Crusty on the outside, chewy in the middle! They'll be heavenly!"

Errrrm...no...they weren't. At least, I don't think so as I didn't technically eat any, but I did poke and prod and sniff them quite a bit. The good news is, my non-discerning family like them. They basically were just heavy, syrupy, slightly rubbery lemon bricks. They were not chewy in the right way. They were not pleasingly crusty. They were not what I would call "lemon brownies". I'm not saying that lemon brownies don't exist somewhere out there in the ether, it's just that this recipe wasn't them.

I didn't melt the butter, I just cut the room temperature butter into the flour and sugar.

And in a separate bowl went eggs, lemon juice and zest. Then they met each other in the big bowl. At first it was ugly.

But then it looked nice and cake battery.

So into the tin it went.

My assistant was given the task of cleaning the bowl.

And the mix came out of the oven looking like this. Not particularly brownie looking - just looked like a normal thin tray bake.

I mixed a glaze in a separate bowl, but it seemed too runny to me

Indeed, when I put it on, it just sat on the top. I had to wait a good few hours for it to set at all.

And when I finally attacked it, it looked like this. 

Errr...not so great. That said, my family has happily demolished them so just not my thing maybe.

I got my recipe here, and have just copied and pasted it below too. But still I wonder...do lemon brownies really exist somewhere???

Ingredients

For the Brownie

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 eggs, large
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the tart lemon glaze

• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 8 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 cup icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish with butter and set aside.
3. Zest and juice two lemons and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined.
6. Pour it into the flour mixture and beat for 2 mins at medium speed until smooth and creamy.
7. Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 mins, should turn golden around the edges.
8. Allow to cool completely before glazing. Do not overbake, or the bars will dry.
9. Filter the powdered sugar and whisk with lemon zest and juice.
10. Spread the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula and let glaze set.
11. Cut into bars and serve.