Week 2 - Tottenham Hotspurs & Angie's Lemon Cake

Week 2 - Angie's Lemon Cake - Tottenham - North London

Founded: 1882
Professional: 1885
Former Names: 1882-1884 Hotspur Football Club 1884 - Tottenham Hotspur
Club Nickname: Spurs

When researching this team a couple things led me to choose the lemon cake...
1. On one website it mentioned that they have been referred to as a 'lemon' team when things are going badly...(no offense intended) &
2. London is well known for it's Dry Gin & the inclusion of the Gin in the syrup topping provides both a 'hot' element and a London element.

Not to mention I had a lot of lemons at the ready.....This recipe also comes from one of my favourite cookbooks - Stephanie Alexander's "The Cook's Companion". She notes that this recipe is from her friend Angela Clemens & that it is made in minutes in the food processor. Jane Grigson is also mentioned as she has a very similar recipe in her Fruit Book. She adds candied lemon peel to the cake mixture and a tablespoon of gin to the final syrup. I admit that it was both easy and delicious...

Angie's Lemon Cake

Melted Butter
250g Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
grated zest of 1 Lemon
200g Castor Sugar
250g softened Unsalted Butter
4 large Eggs

SYRUP
2/3 cup Castor Sugar
juice of 1 Lemon
1 Tbsp Gin

1. Preheat oven to 160 Degrees Celcius. Line a 24cm springform tin with baking paper. Brush paper and sides of tin well with melted butter.

2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Pulverise zest and sugar in a food processor, then add softened butter and beat until thick and pale.

3. Add eggs and flour mixture alternatley in 2 batches, pulsing briefly after each edition.

4. Tip mixture into tin, then smooth top and bake for about 1 hour or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean.

5. To make syrup, dissolve sugar in lemon juice over heat in a non-reactive saucepan. Cool cake for a few minutes in tin, then turn out onto a clean, dry tea towel and peel off paper. Invert onto a serving plate and pierce top in a few places with skewers. Add Gin to warm syrup and slowely spoon syrup over cake. Leave to cool completely before serving.

Delicious....I found that I would have liked more syrup on the cake - I remember one of my favourite things while on a working holiday in Devon a few years back was going to Mark and Spencers food hall and getting a lemon syrup cake (and my thanks to Rachel who I was working with for introducing me to the delightfully sweet & tart cake).

The Cook's Companion, Stephanie Alexander. Published by Penguin Books 2004.

Next Week ????