Beginner Baking 1

Another challenge that I've set myself for my maternity leave (in addition to doing a correspondence course in small farming and raising a small child), is learning to bake. There seems to be a baking revival happening across the world but it's the great kiwi tradition of bringing a plate that has inspired me.

The local gardening club, the office morning tea, neighbourhood, mothers' groups all demand a "plate" so I thought it was about time that I expanded my repertoire from just ginger biscuits.

And there's a small matter of lots and lots of eggs to use up...


So my first foray into cake-making was my mother's trusty lemon cake, a long-time favourite in our cake tin raids.

Of course, I had to bake the cake in between nappy changes and feeds, in ten minute slots at a time. This was working well until I realised that in my haste I'd put the cake too high up in the oven and it was going to rise up to touch the grill element. So I quickly grabbed the oven rack to move it down and the cake slid down the back and dropped on to the lower tray. By some small miracle, it remained upright but it had collapsed during the fall.

And this taught me my most important lesson in baking so far - be flexible! The crack in the cake's surface was quickly covered up with some slices of kiwi fruit which went very well with the overall lemon flavour. Phew!

Here's the recipe for all the keen bakers among my readers...

Ingredients
115g margarine
175g caster sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon (I was lucky enough to use a lemon from our own tree)
175g self-raising flour
55ml milk
Juice of 1 lemon
115g granulated sugar

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180C
• Grease and line oblong tin (17.5cm x 22.5cm x 2.5cm) (I just used the 7" round tin that I had to hand)
• Beat together margarine and caster sugar until light and fluffy
• Gradually beat in eggs
• Stir in lemon rind
• Fold in flour, alternating with milk
• Put mixture into tin and level off
• Bake for 50 minutes until risen and golden
• Prepare topping whilst cake bakes by blending together granulated sugar and lemon juice
• Spoon over cake whilst still hot
• Leave cake in tin to cool