In Cyprus, one day you wake up in November and it’s winter. The weather has gone cold. And suddenly everything goes from dry and dusty to gorgeous and green. This happened last week. (At least in my books.) At the same time, citrus season begins. Citrus is everywhere right now. We have heaps of lemons in the garden. Clementines falling off the trees. I went to gather some lemons from my aunt’s tree in her back yard the other day. Though I said that 10 lemons was enough, my aunt hustled around the tree insisting I take a few more. Mediterranean lemons are special. I would even go as far to say that you have not experienced the true loveliness of a lemon, until you have tried one freshly picked from a Mediterranean tree. The smell of a freshly grated Cypriot lemon is divine. Clementines are so sweet, they remind me of artificial flavours. So good you think they are fake. Now, I’ve been sort of obsessed with bundt cakes at the moment. So I made another: a lemon-ginger poppyseed bundt cake, with a clementine-vanilla glaze. I love the combination of the citrus and slightly spicy cake with a soothing vanilla-clementine glaze. It’s a perfect coffee cake. Moist and dense. It stays moist for a few days too if properly covered. I hope you enjoy this cake. It’s a nice one to have around at Christmas. Easy to make. Lasts awhile. And a good way to make use of newly discovered poppy seeds stocked by grocery stores in Cyprus! Christmas is just around the corner, so I wish everyone reading a very Happy Xmas and see you in the New Year. Don’t forget if you are looking for a vasilopita recipe, there is one here!
for more recipes, visit Afrodite’s Kitchen
Level of Difficulty: 2/5
Preparation Time: about 20 minutes
Cooking Time: about 40 minutes
1 large bundt cake
ingredients
for the cake
1 cup granulated sugar
2.5 tbs finely grates lemon rind
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups Mitsides All-Purpose Flour
2 tbs poppy seeds
1 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
for the glaze
about 1 cup (more or less) icing sugar
juice from 1 clementine
1/4 tsp vanilla sugar
recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 160C and butter and flour a bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, add the lemon rind and sugar. Mix together with your fingers so that the sugar absorbs the lemon rind.
3. Add the butter to the sugar mixture and beat well for 5 minutes, until the butter turns white and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating well to incorporate.
4. In another bowl, mix together your dry ingredients: the flour, poppy seeds, ginger, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
5. Then add the dry ingredients and sour cream to the sugar mixture on an alternating basis, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (3 batches).
6. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until a stick inserted in the middle of the bundt cake comes out clean.
7. Prepare the icing glaze. Take 1 cup of icing sugar and add the juice from 1 clementine until you reach a pourable consistency. Add 1/4 tsp of vanilla sugar and stir. Leave in the fridge to slightly thicken for about 20 minutes.
8. Once the cake has completely cooled, pour the thickened glaze over top. And enjoy.
for more recipes, visit Afrodite’s Kitchen
