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on food and identity

Lemon lavender “Smurf” cake!

3rd May 2015 by yasmina

I love a tart and tangy lemon cake any day. Lavender just adds a whole other dimension to the lemony goodness. Lemon-lavender is definitely one of my favourite flavour combinations: it works in cookies, cakes, ice cream, ice lollies, cocktail, you name it…

This is based on Nigella’s gluten-free lemon polenta cake, which I modified with the addition of lavender, and the seasonal fresh strawberries topping on a sugar glaze. When I showed Sami pictures of the cake, he laughed and laughed and said it was just like a Smurf cake. After Googling it, I did find the Smurf cake he was referring to. Anyhow the name stuck, no matter how many I mentioned that the Smurf version is a Bundt format and with cherries instead of strawberries.

Lemon-lavender gluten-free “Smurf” cake

For the cake

  • 1 ¾ sticks soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
  • 1 cup superfine sugar
  • 2 cups almond meal
  • ¾ cup fine polenta (or cornmeal)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (see note below)
  • 3 large eggs
  • zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)
  • 1 tablespoons dried lavender, plus a pinch or two to decorate the cake later

For the topping and sugar glaze

  • 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • a dozen fresh strawberries, washed and have the tops chopped off to make an even base

Instructions:

  1. Line the base of a 21cm / 8inch springform cake tin with baking paper and grease its sides lightly with butter.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
  3. Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
  4. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
  5. Finally, add the lemon zest and lavender buds. Don’t over mix; just stir with a spatula two or three times until just mixed.
  6. Scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
  7. Insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake to see if it’s cooked; if it is, the toothpick should come out clean-ish and, most importantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin. Cool completely.
  8. When the cake is cooled, remove it from its tin onto the wire cooling rack.
  9. Then, in a bowl, mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar. The mixture should be thick and creamy. Don’t make this glaze before the cake cools, otherwise it’ll set and be unspreadable on the cake later.
  10. Pour the sugar glaze over the cake, and leave to set (around 10-15 minutes) before adding the fresh strawberries.
  11. Sprinkle some dried lavender buds on top for decoration.

NOTE: to make this cake gluten-free, make sure to use gluten-free baking powder, or omit the baking powder altogether and beat the batter exuberantly at step 4.

Enjoy!


LemonLavenderStrawberry_02_Small

 

Saya suka sekali kue rasa lemon yang menyegarkan dan agak kecut. Lavender menambah dimensi baru pada rasa lemon yang khas itu. Pokoknya lemon-lavender adalah salah satu kombinasi rasa favorit saya: bisa masuk ke cookies, kue, es krim, es batang, cocktails, dan makanan manis lainnya…

Resep ini berdasar pada resep gluten-free lemon polenta cake bikinan Nigella Lawson, yang saya modifikasi dengan menambah lavender dan topping gula dan strawberries segar kalau memang sedang musim. Ketika saya menunjukan kreasi saya kepada Mas Sami, dia malah tertawa sambil mengatakan kue saya ini seperti Smurf cake.

Setelah Google sana-sini, ternyata emang ada cake bikinan Chef Smurf yang bundar, dengan sugar glaze putih dan buah cherry merah. Walaupun saya udah berkali-kali bilang perbedaan kue saya dan kue si Chef Smurf, nama Smurf cake ini nempel! Ya sudah, yang penting enak.

Kue Smurf rasa lemon-lavender yang gluten-free

Bahan untuk kue

  • 1 ¾ sticks mentega lunak yang tidak bergaram (ditambah sedikit untuk melapisi loyang)
  • 1 cup gula halus
  • 2 cups tepung almond 
  • ¾ cup polenta halus (or tepung jagung)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (lihat note dibawah)
  • 3 buah telur yang besar
  • 1 sendok makan lavender kering
  • parutan kulit dari 2 buah lemon (gunakan jusnya untuk glaze)

Bahan untuk topping

  • 1 sendok teh jus lemon atau air jeruk nipis
  • 1 cup gula halus
  • selusin buah stroberi segar, yang dipotong bagian atasnya

Cara membuat:

  1. Ambil loyang ukuran  21cm / 8inch dan lapisi dasarnya dengan baking paper and lumuri sampingnya dengan mentega.
  2. Panaskan oven hingga suhu 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
  3. Dengan menggunakan mixer atau sendok, aduk mentega dan gula hingga warnanya pucat dan bentuknya seperti krim.
  4. Campur almonds, polenta dan baking powder, and aduk adonan kering ini ke dalam adonan gula-mentega, lalu tambah 1 telur, lalu berganti menambah adonan kering dan telur, sambil terus mengaduk.
  5. Paling terakhir, tambahkan parutan kulit lemon dan lavender kering. Jangan over mix; aduk saja 2-3 kali sampai terdistribusi dalam adonan.
  6. Tuangkan adonan ke dalam loyang yang sudah disiapkan dan panggang di oven selama 40 menit.
  7. Masukkan tusuk gigi ke tengah kue untuk cek apakah sudah matang; kalau sudah matang, tusuk giginya akan tetap bersih tanpa adonan yang menempel. Lebih penting lagi, tanda lain bahwa kue sudah matang adalah tepi kue akan menjauh dari pinggir loyang. Pindahkan kue dari oven ke cooling rack, tapi biarkan dalam loyang. Biarkan hingga dingin.
  8. Kalau si kue sudah dingin, pindahkan dengan hati-hati ke atas cooling rack.
  9. Lalu, tiba saatnya untuk bikin sugar glaze. Dalam sebuah mangkuk, aduk gula halus dan perasan lemon/jeruk nipis. Adonan ini berbentuk kental dan kenyal. Jangan bikin sugar glaze sebelum kuenya dingin, karena nanti glazenya keburu keras dan ngga bisa di-spread diatas cake.
  10. Tuangkan sugar glaze ke atas kue, dan biarkan mengeras, sekitar 10-15 menit, sebelum menambah buah stroberi segar diatasnya.
  11. Untuk dekorasi, taburilah sedikit lavender kering diatas kue.

Note: apabila ingin membuat kue ini gluten-free, gunakanlah baking powder yang gluten-free. Atau, jangan pakai baking powder dan aduklah adonan keras-keras hingga mengembang pada langkah 4.

Selamat menikmati!

Filed Under: Recipes, of sorts Tagged With: baking, gluten-free, imperial, recipes

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