Knitting, Cakes and Borsch

I've made the gloves for Lesya and I started her socks last night. I'm feeling fairly confident that a pair of small gloves (I don't have big hands and neither does Lesya) and size 5-6 socks can be made from a 100g ball of "Lana Grossa".



It's the BF's birthday today. He requested a lemon cake and after much searching on the internet, I found this recipe which I thought some of you might like.

(I'm not a Domestic Goddess by any stretch of the imagination - I like my baking simple, and above all requiring as little work as possible. Ready rolled pastry is a gift from the gods. I'm a one bowl and electric mixer kind of girl).

Lemon Cake Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a nonstick spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) springform pan and then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 large lemon
2 cups (280 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice

Icing:

1 cup (115 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale in color (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and then add to the batter along with the lemon juice. Mix only until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula. Bake about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool, then gently remove the sides of the pan.

For the icing, combine the sifted confectioners' sugar with the 2 tablespoons lemon juice. (You want the icing to be thicker than a glaze but still thin enough that it will just run over the sides of the cake. If not the right consistency add more lemon juice or powdered sugar, accordingly.) Frost the top of the cake, allowing the icing to drip down the sides. Let the icing set before covering.

Alternatively... cut the cake into two halves and make lemon butter icing. Instead of icing the top of the cake, melt white chocolate over it. It doesn't need to cover the entire cake... unless you really love white chocolate. Just coating the top of the cake in white chocolate gives a really nice contrasting taste to the lemon.

This cake will keep for several days in an airtight container.

Makes one - 9 inch (23 cm) cake.

Well, ours didn't last several days. (Rubs tummy with much satisfaction).



And a further recipe... I was digging this one out for Seahorse but thought I'd share with everyone. Seahorse has a good haul of beetroot and what better use to put this to than borcsh. Quiet, you heathens, who don't appeciate this lovely stuff.

I first had borsch when I went to Russia (appropriately enough) on a student exchange when I was 16. It was the only foodstuff that wasn't flavoured with some fennel-like herb, which I loathe and detest in a passion you could only dream of. Anyway, the borsch was lovely and after several years of sporadic looking, this is a recipe that is very similar to the soup I had in Russia.

Borsch Recipe

10 cups of beef stock
4 beetroot, peeled and sliced
2 potatoes finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
Clove of garlic(recipe says 'one', but I'd say 'three')
1 tbsp lemon juice
Freshly ground pepper
Sour cream
Chopped chives

Bring stock to the boil, add prepared vegetables and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the beetroot is tender. Add lemon juice and pepper. Serve soup, topped with sour cream and chives.

Serves 6-8.

And there endeth cookery corner.