Lynda's Luscious Lemon Loaf

Tasty, tangy and moist, we enjoyed this with a nice cup of tea ...

Following on from my post on Sunday about the glut of lemons I have at the moment, I decided to make a Lemon Loaf this weekend.

This is one of my own recipes - it is a nice moist loaf with a tangy lemony flavour, accentuated by the addition of the lemon icing (although you could use water in place of the lemon juice and just keep the icing plain if you prefer).

Lemon cakes and loaves are not that common here in Africa … I mean, you do not often see them in shops, bakeries or on restaurant menus or even in people’s homes, for that matter. I’m not sure why ? But anyway, it is a loaf I sometimes like to make for tea when we have visitors as it is slightly ‘unusual’ here, and always gets rave reviews !

I had just iced the loaf and was waiting for the icing to set slightly before I sprinkled the grated lemon rind on the top, when I caught my husband brandishing a knife “Can I just have a little taste off the end ?” he asked me “NO ! DON’T YOU DARE !!!” I shouted at him “I haven’t taken a photo of it yet !” My poor husband eventually got to eat a piece (he likes the crusty end pieces slathered in - wait for it - peanut butter !) about 5 seconds after I’d taken the photo !


Lynda’s Luscious Lemon Loaf

125 gm Margarine
150 gm brown Sugar
2 tbsp finely grated Lemon rind
4 tbsp Lemon juice
2 Eggs, beaten
¼ cup Milk
175 gm Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
pinch of Salt

For the icing :

130 gm Icing Sugar
3 – 4 tbsp Lemon juice
1 tsp finely grated Lemon rind

Cream the margarine & sugar together. Add the lemon rind & juice, and continue to beat. Add the beaten eggs & milk and mix and then fold in the sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Blend well together and pour into a greased loaf tin. Bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 40 - 45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, mix the lemon juice, rind and icing sugar together and once the loaf is cool, pour it over the top and smooth with a knife. (You can keep a little of the finely grated lemon rind back, and sprinkle it over the surface if you like.)

Blog Housekeeping .... Some Updates

The "Metrification and the Housewife" pamphlet which gave me such a laugh ! (Read more about it below)

No school runs this week – it’s half term – yippee ! I’ve told my husband that I do not want to set foot off the farm during this time. Not a FOOT ! I am tired of bumpy roads (and packed lunches !), and am relishing the thought of – just staying put for a while.

So, no excuse then, time to do a little housekeeping … no, not THAT sort of housekeeping, silly ! (I have house staff to help out with THAT !) But rather, some blog housekeeping …

Thanks to the people who’ve suggested that I alter my header (sunset) picture so that the title/description is more readable. I know that the green does not show up clearly against the photo background, so I’m working on that as we speak …

As the largest percentage of my blog visitors are from the US (happy Memorial Day to you all, by the way !), and the UK, and as both countries follow the Imperial measurement system, but all my recipes are written in the Metric measurement system, I have added a gadget to the bottom of the blog (right above the “Recent Visitors Map”) that enables you to quickly calculate between Metric and Imperial. (Thanks to Ginger, for bringing this to my attention.)

I’ve removed the Google “Search” bar to make way for the new conversion gadget, as I don’t want my blog to become too cluttered. (I don’t know about you, but I find nothing more annoying when visiting a blog/website to find that it takes ages to load due to all sorts of flashing, beeping gadgets, adverts and falling snowflakes all over the place ?)

I have also changed the number of blog posts on the first page from 5 to 3 so that the blog still loads fairly quickly.

If you need a giggle to cheer up your Monday, the picture above is of a leaflet I inherited along with some old family recipe books recently. It was issued in Salisbury, Rhodesia (present day Harare, Zimbabwe) in December 1970 and it’s title is “Metrification and the Housewife” … the front cover (pictured) reads -:

“THE MASSIVE LADY - Weight will be known as Mass”

The blue diagram is of a lady standing on a bathroom scale, wrapped in a towel and the words underneath read “My weight used to be 220 pounds but now my mass is only 100 kilograms ”

The pamphlet goes on to reassure the 1970’s ‘housewife’ ….. “How will these changes affect the housewife ? Will all her favourite recipes and cookery books become quite useless ? No ! She can still bake as she always did, but she will buy the ingredients in amounts measured in the new system of units.”

The pamphlet was produced by the “Domestic Functional Committee of the Metrification Council” – my goodness, what a mouthful ....

Have a wonderful Monday, everyone ;)

A Lemon Cordial Drink Recipe

Our lemon tree, laden with fruit at the moment

The Lemon Cordial syrup, simmering away on the stove

The lemon tree in our garden is heavy with fruit at the moment. Each time I spy it out of my kitchen window, it beckons to me “Come ! Pick my ripe fruit and make something delicious to eat !” I kept ignoring it. Until yesterday, that is. I went out, brandishing a broom stick with an excited child at my feet (along with several dogs) and whacked as many lemons off the tree as I could ! The dogs ran around excitedly, picking them up in their mouths and my daughter shrieked in delight, trying to pick up as many as she could in her chubby toddler’s hands.

So, now I have a huge bowl of lemons sitting on my kitchen counter and their fragrance is intoxicating … enticing me …. teasing me ….. what on earth am I going to do with them ? A few things spring to mind …. lemon marmalade, lemon pickle, lemon meringue pie, lemon curd, lemon sorbet, lemon pudding, lemon biscuits, lemon cake, lemon loaf ….. but I wanted something quick and easy – and immediately thought of my Mum’s Lemon Cordial recipe.

It’s one which she made us as children growing up in Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) and South Africa, and it is one that her mother made her and my Uncle as kids growing up in Northern Rhodesia (present day Zambia). I have now made it for my daughter to enjoy here in Tanzania …. so I guess you could say that this is a real “African Lemon” recipe !

My Mum says that she remembers times as a child, when if unexpected visitors ever arrived on a hot summer’s day and there was not much to drink in the house, my Grandmother would send the kids out to pick some lemons off the tree so that she could quickly whip this recipe up -:

Lemon Cordial Recipe

8 medium sized Lemons
500 gm’s white Sugar (I used brown, as we cannot get white sugar here easily)
1 cup cold Water

Squeeze the juice from the lemons and set aside. Keep the peels of 2 of the lemons, and place in a pot along with the sugar and water. (Try to ensure that there is not much of the white ‘pith’ on the inside of the lemon peels, as this can make the cordial bitter). Bring to the boil, stirring constantly and then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes – just stirring now and again.

Remove from heat, add the reserved lemon juice and bring back to the boil briefly, whilst stirring. Allow to cool and then strain into a bottle or jug (to remove the peel and any other bits like pips etc) and store in the fridge (it will keep for weeks) and add a little to some iced water whenever you feel like a nice, cool drink.

“Cheers !”