By Honor Northam

I’ve been sharing the cakes I bake for the Dissenters Lounge in the Once in a While newsletter that you can subscribe to via the Dissenters Lounge website. Now that the café space is also the Honorbread Lounge, you’re welcome to bring your Honorbread coffee, cake and other purchases inside to enjoy in comfort, but we won’t be serving coffee and cake from the Lounge itself.

I’ll keep writing up the recipes I’m developing for the bakery – and for my own family – so if you like cooking with what’s seasonal or just want someone else to test a recipe first, you can subscribe and keep up to date with what’s going on at the Lounge and maybe have some baking inspiration too.

Recipe

I love the simplicity and sturdiness of pound cake, the even measurements. It’s like cake in boots – ready for anything. This is a bright, fragrant pound cake with gentle citrus of Meyer lemons with warm fennel seed – lovely with morning coffee or an afternoon cuppa. My tree is laden with just under-ripe Meyer Lemons which makes them a little less sweet. Everything is in grams because that’s the only way I can bake confidently. I put zest and lightly toasted fennel seeds along the top as per the picture.

Ingredients

200 g self-raising flour
300 g plain flour
3 g fine sea salt
300 g caster sugar
90 g milk
300 g eggs (about 5-6 large eggs)
10 g vanilla extract
300 g unsalted butter, very soft
4 g fennel seeds, lightly toasted then ground
15 g finely grated Meyer lemon zest (from about 2-3 lemons)
20-30 g Meyer lemon juice

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 °C. Grease a rectangular or Bundt tin.
2. Sift the self-raising flour, plain flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the caster sugar and whisk briefly to combine.
3. In a jug, whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the Meyer lemon zest and juice.
4. Add the soft butter and about half of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix on medium speed until the batter comes together and looks smooth and thick, then scrape down the bowl.
5. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2-3 additions, mixing just until incorporated each time.
6. Fold in the ground fennel seed by hand so it’s evenly distributed through the batter.
7. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the top.
8. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.
9. Cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Meyer Lemon Glaze (optional)

For extra shine and flavour, drizzle this over the cooled cake.

150 g icing sugar, sifted
25-30 g Meyer lemon juice
Finely grated zest of ½ Meyer lemon (optional)

Whisk the icing sugar with 25 g Meyer lemon juice (and zest, if using) until smooth and just pourable; add a little more juice if needed. Place the cooled cake on a rack set over a tray and drizzle the glaze over the top, letting it run down the sides. Sprinkle top with zest and fennel seeds if desired. Leave to set for 20-30 minutes before slicing.

Photo: Honor Northam