Monday, August 11, 2014

Lemon, Buttermilk and Black Pepper Cake


I love a cake that has the hint of the unusual, so when I spied a recipe by Ruby Tandoh for Lemon, Buttermilk and Black Pepper Cake, I was in.  I was curious - how would pepper taste in a sweet cake?

The base cake itself was lovely - it had a chewy caramelised outside and a soft lemony inside:


I used a brush to evenly apply the sugar syrup to each layer.

While I didn't have lemon curd to fill my cake, I did have raspberry curd - I thought the tartness of the raspberry would emulate the tartness of lemon curd quite well.  I also topped my cake with some lemon buttercream I had left over from another project:


I thought this cake was delish, but the filling and icing made it a little sweeter than I'd like.  Because the base cake is so lovely, I would make this again, but just keep the cake in one layer, brush the outside of the cake with the syrup, and either not top it or use a lemon glaze.

And as for the pepper - it really blended in with and highlighted the other flavours, with every now and again a gritty speck of pepper giving a burst of flavour unmistakably its own.

Verdict: very good.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn delicious!!!
the photograph is really seducing my taste buds...
never even know blackpepper on dessert before, definitely tempting t try!!!

Sherry's Pickings said...

this cake looks and sounds great. i love the taste of black pepper in sweet things so this would be great. i must make it!

Kari said...

I have had and enjoyed pepper chocolate so can imagine loving this - it sounds just like my kind of cake.

Chaya said...

It sounds interesting. I find that black pepper sometimes adds something that is nothing (if that makes sense). Thanks for sharing that it is sweet. It sounds like something I would like to make.

Andrea_TheKitchenLioness said...

Gaye, what an intriguing recipe for a cake - it sounds and looks very tempting indeed. I love it when my blogger friends put some unusual recipes to the test! I certainly would not mind a taste!

Johanna GGG said...

Interesting how lemon pepper is such a classic flavour in savoury foods but not surfaced much in sweet - I can imagine it wont be long before the idea takes off - and I am much happier with the warmth of pepper than chilli - sounds like a lovely cake to me and the photo is very enticing

Kayte said...

Wow, this lemon buttermilk pepper cake looks fantastic and I am thinking I need to make a 6" pan version of this one so I am marking it now. You find the most interesting cakes to bake. I liked your suggestion at the end how you would change it up. Those are always an education!