Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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.


8 comments:

Finla said...

Well that is indeed a low fat cake, but still itlooks good.

Swati said...

The cupcakes look so pretty in the colorful cases..I also loved the honey cake in which the bees are there..
Very cute!

Susan @ SGCC said...

Those are adorable little cakes! Lemon cake is one of my faves. Great job!

Silvia - Magnolia Wedding Planner said...

good morning my dear!! It's so weird to know that you are in the middle of winter as we are at the beginning of summer..this world in so huge :-D
I don't like winter too maybe I prefer autumn because it's cold but not so much. and expecially I miss the light of a long day during those winter months!
thanks for this recipe..they really look as little suns!! :-D
have a wonderful day dear!!
Kisses
Silvia

Chef Jeena said...

Lovely little treats. :-)

Unknown said...

These are looking petite and moist!

Ivy said...

It's winter in Melbourne and 90 degrees in Athens. What better than a low fat cake. Who needs the extra calories. Cake, your recipe looks perfect for our event http://kopiaste.blogspot.com/2008/05/fat-chefs-or-skinny-gourmets-food-event.html

Lore said...

We had 100 degrees a few days ago with no air conditioning. I so want to move to Scotland and never look back!
Your lemon-poppy seeds cakes might redirect me to Australia ;)