lemon sourdough pound cake

lemon sourdough pound cake

• 30 May 2021

If ever I want some help with gluten free baking I turn to Aran Goyoaga and her book, Canelle et Vanille. Every month Aran sends out newsletters which contain a new recipe and I was intrigued by her GF, dairy-free lemon sourdough pound cake recipe. There was only one catch - I didn't have any sourdough starter. 

Somewhere in my deep freeze lies Audrey, my sourdough starter, but honestly it seemed easier to start from scratch than to locate Audrey. So about a week before making the cake I started the process of making a non gluten-free sourdough starter from scratch. When it was all bubbly and active I decanted the appropriate quantity then whizzed the cake up in the food processor.

The finished cake smelt delicious and I was keen to try a piece.

If you'd like to try the recipe here is my adapted non gluten free recipe which will make a small loaf cake. If you'd like to make the larger gluten free version I have attached the link to Aran's recipe below.For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.  

 

Lemon Sourdough Pound Cake adapted from this recipe

Cake

125g plain flour

Pinch salt

½ tsp bicarb soda

⅔ cup almond meal

½ cup caster sugar

1 tbs finely grated lemon rind

35 g honey

2 eggs

150g sourdough starter

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbs freshly-squeezed lemon juice

 

For the glaze

¼ cup caster sugar

¼ cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice

 

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C, conventional. Place the oven rack on the lower third half of the oven. Grease the loaf tin and line with baking paper.

Sift the flour, salt and bicarb soda into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal making sure to break up any lumps from the almond flour.

In a food processor whiz together the sugar and lemon rind until the sugar is coloured yellow. Add the honey, eggs, sourdough starter, olive oil and lemon juice and whiz until smooth. 

Add the dry ingredients into the wet and whiz until you have a smooth and pourable batter. If the batter is a little thick then add a little more lemon juice. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely in the pan, then invert onto a platter removing the baking paper.

Meanwhile, make the glaze by heating the sugar and lemon juice together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves, but do not let it boil too long. Immediately, brush the top of the cake with the warm glaze letting it drip over the sides.

Slice the cake and serve. The cake can be stored for up to 3 days in the fridge, tightly wrapped. 

The finished cake  tasted delicious but the cake when cut was quite solid in texture with large air bubbles probably from the sourdough starter reacting with the bicarbonate of soda. As I'd made a non GF version of the recipe, I wondered if I'd done something wrong. Looking at Aran's photo, my loaf looked much the same as her loaf so clearly this is the way the cake should be.

 

Last week of work for me before I take a 3 week holiday but don't worry I've been baking up a storm stockpiling recipes to tide you over while I take a break from the kitchen.

 

See you all again next week,

 

Bye for now,

 

Jillian