A taste of yellow : lemon sour cream cakes

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This coming 16th of May 2007 is LIVESTRONG Day, an initiative by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise awareness in the community about cancer survivorship. I can’t think of anyone whose life has not been touched by cancer in some way. [Edit: After I wrote this, I received an email from a friend letting me know that she’ll be flying over to New Zealand to see an aunt who has terminal cancer]. It is important to remember those who lost their battle against it and to celebrate those who are still fighting it or have successfully fought it.

As part of LIVESTRONG Day, Barbara of Winos and Foodies is hosting an event called A Taste of Yellow. In support of this event, I have baked a batch of bright yellow lemon sour cream cakes. Lemons are usually the first thing that come to mind when I think about yellow foods. I love them because the juice and their zest add a certain tangy freshness to desserts and work wonders in savoury foods by cutting the richness and giving a dish balance. For me, they are a must-have accompaniment to freshly shucked oysters, poppyseed cake, hot-from-the-pan crepes, and fish ‘n’ chips.

These cakes, from a recipe by Julie Le Clerc, are forkfuls of moist, lemony goodness, made even more special by the topping of lemon sugar.

Lemon sour cream cakes with lemon sugar :

125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
finely grated zest of one lemon
3 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon essence
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 160’C. Grease and flour a 12-hole muffin tin.

Cream butter and sugar until pale. Beat in zest, eggs, lemon essence (if you have it) and sour cream.

Fold in sifted dry ingredients. Pour into prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool before removing from cake tins. Spoon a little lemon sugar over each and this will soak in and set to form a crunchy crust.

Lemon sugar :

juice of 3 lemons
1/2 cup caster sugar

Mix juice and sugar together and drizzle over cakes as soon as they are removed from the oven.

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1 Comment »

  1. barbara said,

    May 9, 2007 @ 11:38 am

    These sound delicious Y. Thank you for supporting A Tatse of Yellow.

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