whole meyer lemon cake

I used the last of my lovely meyer lemons in this cake – a damp, hearty but fluffy cake of almond meal barely bound together. it’s a simple, fragrant cake – and good for tea time. you whizz up meyer lemons with a bit of egg and almond, throw it all into a pan – and bare moments later, there’s a delicious waft of citrus in the kitchen.

this is one of my favourite recipes, and healthy to boot. no fat and no flour, and oh-so-easy to eat, knowing that it’s completely and utterly good for you. I have a couple notes from this attempt though:

1. I chose to microwave the citrus instead of boiling it for ages like the last time I made it – meyers have a very thin skin that made this possible, and I think it’ll likely work with similar fruit like clementines;
2. the next time, I’ll likely use cake pans instead of muffin tin. these cakes have very little binding material, collapsing easily when you try and remove it from the small cups – I think it’ll work best as a larger cake which you can scoop out (and plate with a bit of yogurt, preferably).

whole meyer lemon cake (adapted from eat, little bird)

140g meyer lemons
80g castor sugar
83g almond meal
2 eggs
heaped 0.25 tsp baking powder

1. pierce the lemons with a couple stabs of your knife, and place it in a bowl, covering with a plate or a some clingwrap (also pierced slightly with a fork). this took a couple minutes (which will depend on your lemons and microwave power). my lemons ended up leaking their juices completely – which is fine, just don’t throw it away. it’s done when the rind feels soft and almost spongey. let cool to room temperature. 
2. now preheat your oven to 190C. butter the sides of your pan (6″, or muffin tins), and line the bottom. you can grease it with oil, but I think the little bit of butter complements the citrus very well. 
3. remove the seeds from your lemons, and blitz with any leaked juice in a food processor to a puree. add the remaining ingredients and pulse until everything is well-mixed. 
4. pour into your prepared pan, level, and bake until a cake tester comes out clean. use some foil (shiny side down) if the cake is browning too quickly (but it tastes good dark!). remove to a rack and cool it completely in the pan.

p.s. I got featured in toemailer!