Elderflower and lemon cake

I thought about starting this post with "Hello! I'm alive!! I'm still here!" as it has been over four months (that's like 5 cat years) since I last blogged.

I would like to say that I've been deprived of any baking equipment and flour and butter and sugar and an oven and I just really wanted to bake but simply couldn't. But um, I think I've just been busy eating cake rather than making it. 

So when the email came round at work for an Easter themed bake sale I jumped at the opportunity to get off my chair (which was proving difficult after all of said cake eating) and make something (ahhhhh).

I settled on an elderflower and lemon cake with almonds, decorated with pink and yellow butterflies and sparkly things and flowers. 'Cos you know, Spring.

All in all, our department bake sale managed to raise just over £520 for Great Ormond Street Hospital which is great news! Somebody bought the whole elderflower and lemon cake and shared it around her desk (well, I presume she shared it around her desk.. but I'm not judging if you eat it all by yourself, hehe).

But just to let you know (although it probably doesn't affect over over that side of the electronic screen you're looking at this from) that THIS CAKE CONTAINS NUTS. 

ALMONDS. NUTTY ALMONDS. NUTILICIOUS ALMONDS. So don't eat it if you have a nut allergy, folks. 

And here is a picture of the cake trolley for the bake sale! I even did the afternoon trolley push with my colleague, with me wearing yellow bunny ears and her wearing pink ears. 

Because then we match my cake! Muahaha. No, no, no, I joke, I joke. 

Such a pretty range of cakes! Kudos to all of the bakers, because today, you are ALL star bakers.

My cake was not loaded when this photo was taken, unfortunately. It did make it on the trolley! But I wish I'd gotten there earlier and had some slices of toffee.

Hey I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!

I'm flummoxed and I want it in my...stomach. 

Oh I give up.

After I baked the loaf I have quite a lot of mix left (something that does tend to happen when you increase the mixture by a third. Strange, that) and was running around looking for a cupcake tin. 

But then I remembered (bing!) that my friend gave me these silicon teacup baking moulds for my birthday a few years ago, and they would be perfect. 

So you can just bake cupcakes in these and serve then as tea. How cute!

Here's the teacup cases in action from the top.

I hope you have a lovely week (and April, and May, and possibly June, judging at the rate I'm going in my posting schedule!). See you soon :) 

Elderflower and lemon cake (contains nuts) Takes about 1-1.5hours, serves 18-24 For the loaf cake base and cupcakes 230g softened butter, plus extra for greasing 230g golden caster sugar 4 eggs 140g self-raising flour 185g ground almonds ¾ tsp baking powder 100ml milk Grated zest and juice of one lemon For the elderflower drizzle and decorations 2 tbsp elderflower cordial 4 tbsp icing sugar, mixed with 1 tbsp water to be a pourable consistency Icing decorations (I used sugar butterflies, silver balls, and pink icing) Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment, and prepare a cupcake tin with cases. To make the cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder and milk until smooth. Pour about 2/3 into the loaf tin and the rest into cupcake cases. Bake the loaf for 45-50 mins until golden (you may need to cover it with foil halfway through to stop the top from burning). Bake the cupcakes for about 15-20 minutes. You can check that they are both done by inserting a clean wooden skewer into the cake which should come out clean. As soon as the cake has come out of the oven, prick it all over with a skewer. Pour the elderflower cordial over the top of the cake. For the loaf, when it has dried drizzle the icing sugar over and stick on some decorations. You can decorate the cupcakes as you want but I used pink icing from a tube and iced on some icing tops and decorated with glitter and silver balls J