Lemon and thyme cakes

I love the fresh and zinginess of lemon cake, and thyme is a great herb that works really well with the lemon, adding a fragrant edge and interest to the sponge as you bite your way through it. The sponge in this cake has a little more to it by adding ground almond the sponge has more depth, moistness and a bit firmer than your normal poofy fairy cake. Also the use of golden sugar lends itself nicely to the colouring of the sponge and fitting perfectly with the lemon theme.

200g butter

200g golden caster sugar

100g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 zested lemon

3 tsp thyme leaves

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Cream the sugar and butter together.

Add the whisked egg a little at a time with a spoonful of flour

Stir in the rest of the flour, baking powder add the almonds, zest and thyme

cook at 160 for 15 to 20 mins until you get a clean pull from the skewer test.

The topping is a cream cheese frosting laced with lemon curd... rude not to really.

125g cream cheese

300g icing sugar

50g butter 

be careful not to over whisk as this can easy collapse and go runny, in one side of a piping bag place lemon curd and the other the icing and pipe away on top of the cakes.

Lemon and Elderflower sorbet

This is a lovely snowball in a glass, fresh and light and a perfect dessert or treat for a nice sunny day and can also be eaten as an amuse bouche.  Not only is this unbelievable easy to make your have to stop yourself going back for seconds

Ingredients 
150g caster sugar
1 pint water
juice of 3 lemons
4 tbsp of elderflower cordial
1 egg white

place the sugar in a pan with 1pint of water to dissolve over a low heat and once dissolved simmer for 5 mins until your have made a light syrup. if you have a sugar thermometer it should have a temperature of 106c.

Allow the syrup to cool completely and stir in the lemon juice and cordial and freeze.

When frozen remove from the freeze and break up into chucks and add to a food processor with the egg white and process till smooth and then return to the freezer until frozen

If your making this at the right time of year and fancy making your own Elderflower cordial check out my post on how to make this  elderflower and lemon cordial this lasts all year long so its a great make for your store cupboard.

Lemoncello

Fresh and lemony i like drinking this on lazy summer afternoons, but it is nice as a little Christmas after dinner tipple too.

It is so easy to do and takes very little effort

4 un waxed lemons

400g sugar

325ml of water

1/2 litre of vodka

Zest the 4 lemons and add to a pan with the water and sugar and heat but dont bring to boil, as you just water the sugars to melt and go clear.  Simmer for 15 mins to let the lemon zest infuse into the syrup.  Add the juice of the 4 lemons and leave to cool.  Once cooled add your Vodka and leave for a week so the waters and sugar is turned into alchole.

Ali thought this was eye poppingly good