Lemons And Lateness

It's been a while since there was some baking. These lemon sour cream cakes were actually made a couple of weeks ago, now, and I'm finally getting round to sharing them.

The recipe is from Notebook: and they always seem to have some great ideas of things to cook. And (drum-roll, please), the cakes were the maiden voyage of the blue mixer.

They're quite a bit more rustic than the originals in the magazine* - this is partly as I decided not to ice them (the quick out-of-oven sample revealed they were quite sweet enough without icing, and - while I'm not normally one to turn down an opportunity for icing, even a slightly superfluous one - I didn't want to detract from the nice tanginess of the flavour. Although, they were good with some lemon curd (especially the home-style lemon curd my mum and dad found at a local market)**.

This is the recipe for the lemon sour cream cakes:


Lemon sour cream cakes
(makes 12)

70g butter, softened
1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup (125g) sour cream
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
1 tbs finely grated lemon rind
2 tbs lemon juice
for the icing
2 cups (300g) pure icing sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
Citrus rind, to decorate

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease twelve 1/2-cup (125ml) capacity loaf pans or friand pans.
Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Add the sour cream and combined flours and stir to combine. Add the lemon rind and juice and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture evenly among the prepared pans and smooth the surface. Place pans on an oven tray and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove tray from oven and transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Place the icing sugar in a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice and stir until a firm paste forms. Spread icing over the top of the cakes. Place aside to set. Top with citrus rind to decorate, if desired.

* I also made them in cake cases, rather than miniature loaf pans, which I didn't have. 
** It looks a bit too disconcertingly gooey in the photo, but it tastes so good!