As the organiser of Knaresborough and Ripon Clandestine Cake Club I have been really excited by the publication of the new cookbook.  I was so excited when my copy arrived in the post and I couldn’t wait to see what I could bake first. There are so many recipes that I want to bake that I have decided on one thing: I am going to bake them all!  If you love baking and have a copy of the book, another fellow blogger has set up a Clandestine Cake Club Cake-Along on her blog.  To find out more, click here! I will have a go but I am not promising I can commit to every bake.

Last Sunday my hubby was out motorracing for the whole day and I was at home with my children. Being teenagers they were doing their own thing and I was catching up with chores. After they were done I wanted to bake so I had a look in my cupboard and then a look in the CCC book to see what I could start off with.

After much umming and ahhing I settled for the “Lemony Lemonade Cake” on page 138.  This recipe was created by Rob Martin one of the members of the Leeds CCC.  He says that the cake is “a fantastic way to use up leftover lemonade, this droolsome, almost pudding like cake is perfect for a party.  Children love it too. If you’re feeling playful, decorate the top with gummy sweets,” 

The recipe called for buttermilk and luckily I had half a carton left in my fridge after our Shrove Tuesday pancakes. This was just enough for the recipe, thankfully.  Surprisingly I had some lemonade left over unopened from Christmas that I’d forgotten about.  The same went for a small packet of Haribo Tangfastic sweets which were lurking in the cupboard. So surprising Robert the sweetie monster hadn’t spotted them!

To make the lemony lemonade cake you had to grease a springform cake tin. I think mine was a little bit bigger than the one specified in the recipe but I hoped it wouldn’t make a difference. I then had to heat some lemonade and the butter in a saucepan until the butter had melted. While this was going on I weighed out plain flour, salt, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.  Once the butter had melted I tipped this all over the dry mixture in the bowl.  In another bowl, I grated some lemon zest, broke an egg and mixed in buttermilk. This was then combined with the other mixture to make the batter.  Rob Martin mentioned that the batter will be quite runny which mine was.

As I was distracted when I put the cake into the oven I did not look at the clock at the time. I also completely forgot to set my timer so I was completely clueless to see when the cake would be ready. The recipe said it would take about 40 minutes but I had lost track of all time. I just had to go by intuition!  I did manage to get the skewer to come out clean though or so I hoped.

I left the cake to cool for a while when I went off to walk the dog and then decided to make the icing.  My children by this time were back in or their friends had gone home so I asked them if they wanted to decorate the cake.  They both were keen to have a go so my daughter weighed out and measured the butter and lemonade into the pan to melt.  My son added the lemon juice. He then weighed out some icing sugar. I forgot to remind him to sift it into the bowl but both my children took it in turns to mix the icing up.  They then spotted the sweets and their eyes lit up like flying saucers!  I even saw my son sneak a mini fizzy cola bottle into his mouth! They put the sweets onto the cake quickly then asked if they could have a slice of cake. It was intended for our pudding at dinner time when my hubby got home. I cut a slice to photograph but when my back was turned the piece of cake had slid into my kids’ mouths. I was furious but I couldn’t blame them. I cut myself a small slice and it was lemonade heaven. It melted in the mouth, so yummy.

This cake appeals to both adults and children alike!

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx