Lemon and thyme divine

Transcendent

Lemon and thyme lamb; an amazing throwback to my childhood

Transcendent

Lemon and thyme cake; the twist of thyme gives this citrusy delight a kick

Lemon and thyme divine

As a child growing up, the rule in our house was, on your birthday, you got to pick the meal for dinner that night. I usually picked one of two things; either my mum's lasagne, or lemon and thyme lamb.

 

My mum's 30-yr old recipe card

Lemon and thyme lamb is a favourite. I've got a picture of my mum's recipe card for it; the recipe card must be 30 years old and is from the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation. When I moved out of home 15 years ago, I photocopied a bunch of my mum's recipes - ones I'd loved my mum making as I grew up - and they formed the basis for what is now the seven volumes of recipe scrapbooks I have in my kitchen.

But since Emperor D is not a fan of lamb, I never get to make it. Until recently. On a spur of the moment decision, we headed home to Australia for Christmas. I returned to Europe before New Year, but D stayed on until late January, leaving me home alone for a few weeks - and free to cook what I pleased.

With the weather cold and wintry, I spent one morning on the couch flicking through my recipe volumes, searching for inspiration. I came across lemon and thyme and lamb and was suddenly struck with making it; I hadn't had it - either made for me or making it myself - for years. I invited a friend over, Sophia, who being Greek, appreciates the combination of lamb and lemon. But having it with thyme - instead of the usual Greek combination with rosemary - was something new for her.

 

Lemon and thyme lamb

Throwing together the onion and lots of garlic, the lemon and thyme is added with cubes of diced lamb and white wine, then left to either bake or gently simmer on the stove for 1.5 hours. I chose to put it all into my faithful bright blue Le Creuset cast iron casserole pot, throw it in the oven, and allow it to slowly cook away.

Pulling it out of the oven and lifting off the lid, the delicious aroma of lemon, garlic and lamb hits my nose. Served simply with white rice, the first bite takes me back to my 11th birthday, May 1991. The lamb is melt-in-your-mouth tender, and together with the combination of the citrusy lemon, slightly minty/peppery thyme and garlic, it just works. There’s the zing from the lemon, which I love, but which is slightly tempered by the thyme and the strong flavour of lamb. Love it.

Lemon and thyme cake

It’s strange to have two key flavours represented in both a savoury main and a dessert like a cake. But I found a recipe for lemon and thyme cake recently that I thought I’d try. It’s a twist on a simple lemon cake, with the thyme giving a delicate kick.

Easy to make, it’s simply butter and sugar creamed together, plus eggs, lemon zest, a small amount of thyme leaves, flour, and almond meal – which makes it light. What makes it super moist – and delicious – is a syrup of lemon juice, sugar and thyme leaves that is poured into skewered holes of the hot cake as it comes from the oven.

I’ve made this a couple of times now and it’s a winner with everyone. The moist, light cake is packed with the flavour of citrusy, tangy lemons, offset by the sweetness of the sugar and given a slight uplift with the thyme. Served with my favourite Gruyère double cream (bliss!), it’s the perfect tea time treat.

Savoury or sweet, two recipes prove that, together, lemon and thyme are divine. 

 

When chocolate’s not an option

Triumph

Lemony-coconut makes a great, tropical substitution for chocolate

When chocolate’s not an option

Many of you will know from previous cakes I’ve blogged about that my office has a birthday cake tradition; someone in the office has a birthday, someone else makes a cake and we all spring out from behind our desks at some point during the day, thrusting cake with lit candles underneath the embarrassed, but inevitably unsurprised, person’s nose, half-heartedly singing an out of time and out of tune rendition of Happy Birthday. Bad singing over, candles blown out and cake cut, we stand around together for 10 or 15 minutes discussing the cake – home made, of course (no-one dares dreams of doing a shop-bought job these days) – and anything else not related to work.

Incidentally, it was my birthday the first year I joined the office, that was somehow the catalyst for the compulsory birthday cake. I’m not sure why it came about, but I still remember the first cake made by my friend and colleague Julia, a chocolate concoction with Toblerone chocolate pieces and icing sugar dusted over it, to signify the Alps. I was touched. Not surprised though, because although Julia had hid the cake around the corner from my desk, she blew it by posting it to Facebook and tagging me in the photo five minutes before they actually gave it to me. Still, I remember it being rich and chocolatey.

Fast forward two and a half years, and there’s been good cakes and bad ones, but everyone gets a cake for their birthday and the baking load is shared by most of the office. But since the first chocolate cake for my birthday, we’ve had to change tack and try not to have cakes with chocolate in them as one of my friends and colleagues, Amelia, is allergic to it. How anyone could be allergic to chocolate and still be as calm, rational, friendly and funny as she always is, defies logic. Because of her allergy, Amelia’s birthday or not, chocolate cake is out. It’s been hard.

But also rewarding. Chocolate cake is the natural default one for birthday cakes, but the no chocolate rule has broadened the flavour horizons. Teri, a good friend and colleague of mine, had her birthday approaching and I put my hand up to bake it. Searching through my multitude of recipe volumes and books, anything chocolate or with chocolate in it was instantly vetoed. Amongst my own collection, the amount of non-chocolate recipes was decidedly small.

One stood out, however. Lemon and coconut cake was something I found on goodfood.com.au, through the Fairfax Australian news sites, a website I’ve increasingly turned to for inspiration. And it was an inspired choice, given lemon is one of Teri’s favourite flavours, so not only was it something that suited the taste of the person whose birthday it was, its non-chocolate status meant it was a winner for Amelia as well. It was easy to make, always a plus on a school night - a simple place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon - and the cake itself was light, moist and packed full of lemon punch. The icing – while made in a strange way – was the perfect balance between the sweet icing sugar and a fair amount of tart lemon juice. I think I would've preferred a butter cream icing, but the taste really did complete the taste of a cake that had a fair amount sweetness balanced by zing.

In the end, having to think about flavours other than chocolate has been inspiring and refreshing. Although I'm still partial to the good old chocolate cake, and will go on making them when possible, exploring new flavours can open up your tastebuds to a whole new world they may not previously have encountered. And that's no bad thing.

Great cakes!

Triumph/Transcendent
Can't quite decide whether these were a triumph or transcendent - on the border, so will give both ratings!

Great cakes!

So I have been cooking this year, just not posting. With autumn and winter approaching - my favourite seasons for food - I'll try and post more. 

But I can post on a couple of recent triumphs, both cakes. Baking cakes is something I've always found cathartic, and given a rather frustrating week at work, I felt the need to bake two. 

I decided to make one for a friend's birthday party I was invited to, and then another when I realised a colleague who complains he doesn't get cake in his office would be in town just before his birthday. 

Then the hard question of what to make. I have so many cook books and recipe scrapbook volumes, that I haven't looked into even half the recipes. Then I found two I had never made before that were easy, simple to make, and - more importantly - sounded delicious. 

For my colleague-who-never-gets-cake, I settled on melt-and-mix white chocolate cake with a dark chocolate glaze from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. Ms Hay is the queen of quick, simple cakes that taste delicious and this one was no exception. 

Melt-and-mix white chocolate cake

The sweet white chocolate and vanilla cake perfectly contrasted the slightly bitter dark chocolate glaze. The cake itself was not too dry, but did take a little longer than expected to bake. 

It was definitely a hit with all of my colleagues though, with some going back for seconds afterwards and there being none left at all by lunch the following day. 

The other cake I chose for the birthday party was a lemon and raspberry loaf cake. This came out of one of my recipe volumes, and I think it's from the cooking section of an edition of Perth's Sunday Times newspaper.

Although the recipe called for frozen raspberries, fresh ones are currently in season here in Switzerland, so decided to use those instead. It was a good choice, as I think the juice from the fresh berries made it delightfully moist. 

Lemon and raspberry loaf en fete

The flavour of tart lemon and raspberry complemented each other well, with the lemon coming through in the icing on top. Interestingly, several friends had a hard guess trying to pick the fruit that was in it (I hadn't told them), which I was a little surprised by; looked fairly obvious to me! At any rate, comments of 'great cake!' were backed up by the cake having been polished off with nothing left at the end. 

I think of the two, I preferred the taste of the white chocolate cake, but found the lemon and raspberry one easier to make (all done in Betty, my Kitchenaid) and it also turned out more moist, which is something I like in a cake. Thumbs up for both, and they'll definitely go into my list of tried, tested and trusted cake recipes.