Make and devour with love…from the three lovely ladies behind The Hungry Girls' Cookbooks.
Otherwise known as Belgian lemon teacake, this gem was unearthed in a little church recipe book. It’s the cake for anyone who loves lemon tart but doesn’t have the inclination to make and roll out pastry, as the base and filling are baked all at once. A few small adjustments and flourishes have made it extra delicious and handsome to match.
Base
260 g (13/4 cups) self-raising flour
75 g (1/3 cup) white sugar
150 g butter, diced
grated zest of 2 lemons
1 egg
Curd
165 ml (2/3 cup) lemon juice including pulp and pips (from around 3 lemons)
220 g (1 cup) white sugar
50 g butter, diced
2 eggs
Butter a 24 cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
To make the base, put the flour, sugar, butter and lemon zest in a bowl. Rub the mixture together with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Crack in the egg and form into a dough. If you wish to decorate the top of the cake, break off a golf-ball sized piece of dough and set it aside, or otherwise you can leave the top plain.
Put the remaining dough in the tin and spread it across the base. If the dough is sticking to your fingers, wet them every so often so the dough won’t stick. Use your fingers to scrape a thin layer of dough 2–3 cm up the sides of the tin, creating a small rim all the way around.
Preheat the oven to 170°C. To make the curd, strain the lemon juice into a saucepan, pressing all the juice from the pulp. Add the sugar and butter and heat gently until both have melted. Meanwhile, lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl. Keep whisking as you slowly pour the hot lemon mixture onto the eggs. Tip the mixture back into the saucepan and return to gentle heat. Stir for around 5 minutes, until the mixture feels heavier to stir and coats the sides of the saucepan, and you can draw a good line through the mixture on the spoon. Tip into the base.
If decorating the top of the cake, flatten the reserved piece of dough on the bench with your fingers (dust it with a little flour if sticky). Cut out shapes such as leaves, or long thin strips to make a lattice. Place over the curd. Bake the cake in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until the pastry is lightly golden. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Serves 12