Mini lemon and poppyseed cakes

It is winter here in Melbourne, and no matter how hard I try, I always feel flat in winter. I wanted to bake something warm and sunny that was light and tasty and would cheer me up. My friend Patsy had recently given me some lemons, and given the bright sunny colour of lemons and their upbeat, zingy taste, I thought that it would be perfect to bake something using lemons.

I settled on mini lemon and poppyseed cakes, for which I found a recipe in The Australian Women's Weekly's 501 Low Fat Recipes cookbook (p329). These little cakes were the perfect panacea to the grey, cold winter weather that we have been experiencing. They are small and sunny looking, just like tiny yellow flowers dotting a field in the spring. It is a bonus that they are also low in fat and calories (for a change!).

To make these little cakes, you will need:

Cakes

1/3 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornflour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
1/2teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon melted butter

Syrup

grated zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease 2 x 12 hole mini muffin pans or line them with muffin papers.

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, and stir through the poppy seeds, egg yolk, yoghurt, zest, juice and melted butter.

Drop teaspoonsful of mixture into the prepared mini muffin pans and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

While the cakes are baking, make the syrup by placing all of the ingredients into a small saucepan and stirring over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then bringing to the boil and boiling, without stirring, for 5 minutes or until the liquid has thickened into a syrup-like consistency.

Remove the baked cakes from the oven and, while they are still warm, brush the lemon syrup over the top of each cake.

Serve warm or cold, alone or with a dollop of yoghurt on the side.