Candied lemon and orange cake

This cake is sublime served with the candied lemons and lemon sour cream.

Serves 8 | Prep 35 min | Cook 15 min | Bake 35 min + cooling

Ingredients

For the orange cake

½ cup (125ml) soft butter

1½ cups (375ml) sugar

4 eggs, separated

½ cup (125ml) orange juice

zest of 1 orange

1½ cups (375ml) cake flour

½ cup (125ml) cornflour

pinch of salt

2 tsp (10ml) baking powder

For the candied lemon slices (optional)

1½ cups (375ml) castor sugar

2/3 cups (160ml) water

3 lemons, thinly sliced

For the lemon sour cream

1 cup (250ml) sour cream

1 tbsp (15ml) lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp (30ml) icing sugar, sifted

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease 2 x 17cm cake tins.

For the orange cake, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and beat well. Beat in the orange juice and zest.

Sift the cake flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder into the batter and mix through.

Beat the egg whites to form soft peaks and fold into the wet ingredients. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

In the meantime, make the candied lemon slices by heating the sugar and water over medium heat for 5-10 minutes while stirring, to dissolve the sugar. Add the lemon slices and bring to the boil for 12–15 minutes or until the syrup has thickened and the lemons are translucent. Pour the syrup over the cake and top with the lemon slices. Allow to cool.

For the lemon sour cream, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, zest and sugar and set aside. Serve the cake with the cream on the side.

#lemon #orange #cake #koek #candied