Italian Lemon Cream Cake

Tuesday 21 April 2020


I used some of my precious flour this weekend to bake us an Italian Lemon Cream Cake.  I had a lemon that was close to spilling over to unusable and some cream which was also close to being unusable as well. 

I hate it when that happens.


Several months ago, I am ashamed to say  . . .  losing such things wouldn't really have bothered me overly much, although I have always tried to use everything.

 Over the last few years, I have probably not been as diligent as I could have been. Not proud of that.



These days I am much more aware of waste and shortages.  Flour (for one thing) and sugar are in short supply and I don't have regular access to fresh ingredients either. 

 For as long as we are bothered by this Covid 19 pandemic my days of simply popping to the shops or sending Todd when I need something are over, and in fact I am not sure if I will ever live like that again.


Did you know you can keep flour in the freezer indefinitely. Actually, you can keep it in your refrigerator for up to two years before it will go rancid.  

So long as they are stored in airtight containers, that is. A timely tip there!


I had recently been sent some lovely Italian flour by an online supplier of authentic Italian foods,  Cibilia.   I have been storing it in my freezer and decided to use some of it today. There was a semolina flour and 2 types of soft wheat flours, both perfect to make things like shortbreads, scones, biscuits, cookies and so on.  

The flour has been produced by Zilletta Di Brancia - Apulian Stone Mill, which is the only artisan stone mill existing in all the Tavoliere delle Puglie.  It is also a family owned mill. For this Cake I used TIPO 1 which is an Organic all purpose flour.



As you can see I had beautiful results.  Look at the beautiful crumb which resulted after baking!  I was so impressed. 

That crumb is the sign of a good cake. And good flour helps to create a great crumb.



The cake itself is a very simple cake.  It is light and beautifully flavoured and as you can see has a very light crumb and is very moist.

I love simple cakes. They are my favourites.


You beat three large free range eggs together with an additional large free range egg yolk, lemon zest and a quantity of confectioners sugar to make a light and fluffy mixture.

This mixture almost doubles in volume.  This is a part of what adds to that beautiful texture of the cake.


Once you have done that you fold in a mix of the flour and some baking powder, alternating with heavy cream . . .  rich and moist  . . .


A quantity of melted and cooled butter gets folded in at the end along with some vanilla, melted butter, and lemon juice . . .  creating a beautiful cake.  

You need to be careful when you are folding it in so that you don't knock out much of the air that you have beaten into it.


I baked it in my 9 1/2 inch bundt tin. Do make sure you grease the tin really well and dust it with flour. I thought I had done a really good job of that, but my cake still stuck in a few places. 

I needed to use a knife to run down the sides to loosen it and I really hate doing that with my bundt tins.  I absolutely dread scratching them.


In any case if you are looking for a lovely simple cake that is moist and delicious, delicately flavoured with lemon with a beautiful crumb . . .  this is YOUR  cake!


Italian Lemon Cream Cake

Italian Lemon Cream Cake

Yield: 10
Author:
A moist and delicious cake with a delicate crumb.  Flavoured with Lemon.  Tthis cake is wonderful on its own but would be equally as delicious served with some fresh berries in berry season.

Ingredients:

  • 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled (7 TBS)
  • 280g plain flour (I used a TIPO1 Italian flour) (2 cups)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 large free range eggs
  • 1 large free range egg yolk
  • 230g icing sugar (1  3/4 cups) sifted
  • 160ml double cream (2/3 cup heavy cream)
  • the zest of one unwaxed lemon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 TBS lemon juice
  • Icing sugar to dust on finished cake

Instructions:

How to cook Italian Lemon Cream Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Grease a  9 1/2 inch bundt tin and flour it well, tapping out any excess flour.
  2. Melt the butter and allow it to cool completely.
  3. Measure the sugar, lemon zest and eggs, plus egg yolk into a bowl.  Beat with an electric whisk unti it becomes very light in colour and doubles in volume.
  4. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gently fold into the creamed mixure, alternating with the cream, until thoroughly blended in. Gently fold in the lemon juice, vanilla and melted butter.  Pour into the prepared pan.
  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting  onto a plate and allowing to cool completely.  Dust with icing sugar to serve.

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I simply dusted it with some icing sugar, and then decorated it with a couple of viola blooms and some fresh mint leaves. I thought it was quite pretty.  You can't get much prettier than Mother Nature I don't think!

This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again! 





11 comments

  1. Oh Marie, this looks absolutely delicious. I'm definitely going to have to bake this... today!

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    Replies
    1. Wise choice Denise! This is pretty wonderful! Hope you enjoy it! xoxo

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  2. I thought a timely reminder on seeing your beautiful cake would be to say that lemons freeze beautifully and that softly whipped cream freezes well too. We must preserve as much as we can at the moment, and had never thought that flour would freeze. Does this work for SR flour too.

    All ideas for helping to preserve ingredients would be most welcome if you could do a post on the subject.

    Thank you for being here when we need you

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    Replies
    1. I am not entirely sure about self rising flour Karen! I know that it works well with plain and bread flour, whole wheat, rye, etc. So long as it is in an airtight container. I usually make my own self rising flour anyways, so that's not really a problem for me! I will have a think on preserving things for a post! Thanks for the inspiration! xoxo

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  3. Beautiful cake. Thank you for sharing so that we may all enjoy such deliciousness.

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  4. This was a huge hit. And I took your hint and greased my bundt tin well and used breadcrumbs instead of flouring the tin. I find the cakes come out much easier if you use superfine fine, dry breadcrumbs.

    I made this yesterday as I felt that it was just up our alley, and would make a nice change from my stand-by Lemon Poppyseed cake. We did our annual "guard duty" at the local boat club and I took this with me so we could have it with some tea (and coffee in the case of L-G). Part way through the shift, a police patrol dropped by just to say hello and make sure everything was quiet at the wharf, so I invited them to have some coffee and cake as well.

    They ate the lot - both of the "boys in blue" had seconds, then thirds! It was very well received and we enjoyed it as well. You know me and lemon....

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    Replies
    1. I will have to try that next time Marie. Thanks for the great hint! I am so pleased that it was enjoyed and also that you were able to share with the Police Patrol and that they ejoyed it also! Yay! You made my day! xoxo

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  5. It is very hard to read your recipes because there are ads covering up part of the recipe!!!!! It is maddening! Carol in Texas

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    1. Having checked on all of my browsers and devices, the ads are not covering the recipes at all. They come right up to the edge of the ingredients on my laptop, and below the ingredients on my phone and my iPad. Also there is an x in the corner of every ad which allows you to close it/shut it down. I am sorry you don't like the ads. I wish that I didn't have to have them, but this is how I support myself. If you want to you can take a screen shot and show me what is happening on your device and or tell me what browser you are using. If this is a real problem then I need to contact my ad service, but I can't unless I have something to show them. Sorry about that!

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    2. Also, there are no ads on the printable recipe cards.

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