The Easiest Cake Recipe In The World: Lemon Drizzle Edition

A couple of years back, I shared what will remain The Easiest Cake Recipe In The World. Why? Because it’s so stinking easy, you barely need a recipe.

If you click the link above, you’ll get all the info you need, but essentially, all you require is equal weight of egg, butter, sugar and self raising flour. Whip it together you have the basis of a cake you can take in so many directions. Depending on the type of sugar (e.g. if you used brown sugar), you can switch up the density a little, but what you essentially have, is a moist butter cake with a decent crumb.

I love this recipe because it essentially consists of ingredients you will always have in your kitchen, and from there, you can do what you like to trick it up. From adding frozen fruit, chocolate chips and more, it’s an excellent one to have up your sleeve should you have an unexpected guest. Or, if you’re me, you just feel like making something sweet for yourself. One egg is roughly 56g without the shell, so weigh out the other ingredients, cream the butter and sugar, add in the egg, sift in the flour, add whatever else you like, and throw it in the oven. And voila! Cute cake for one.

Lately I’ve been loving turning this excellent base recipe into a lemon drizzle cake. All you need to do is add lemon zest to the batter (use your senses to know how much, but I’d use about half a lemon’s worth of zest for a cake for one). I also like to add a little vanilla paste.

Once the cake is baked (about 25 minutes on 180c), this is the hardest part: release it from its pan, invert it and allow it to cool completely before you ice it. See? Hard!

Once fully cool (this is essential), I make a soft icing consisting of lemon juice and icing sugar. Eyeball it until you have a thick, glossy, viscous texture. Pour this glossy wonder onto the cake, and carefully spread it without shifting crumbs, so you have an even, glossy topper. Finish with more lemon zest. Perfect with a cup of tea!

Pine Mushroom Pasta

Is it really winter in Melbourne if you don’t eat pine mushrooms as often as possible? A perfect winter bowl for a rainy Melbourne day.

Sauté one clove finely diced garlic, a few sprigs of thyme and a small eschalot, also finely diced, in a generous knob of butter for 1-2 minutes on medium-high heat, or until translucent. Throw in sliced pine mushrooms with a good slug of olive oil and sauté briefly until the mushrooms are soft and juicy. Season to taste.

Throw in pasta, and toss together with a little pasta water and another small knob of butter, until glossy and combined. Garnish with reggiano, lemon zest, black pepper, parsley and chilli oil (optional).

Silverbeet with Chickpea, Chilli & Lemon

You want quick, simple, cheap and healthy? You’ve come to the right place. This is a regular mid week favourite and a classic from Joe’s family, amended slightly to maximum yum. It’s also vegan and gluten friendly as well.

Ingredients

1 large eschallot (or a small brown onion), peeled and finely sliced⁣⁣⁣
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed⁣⁣⁣
2-3 bird’s eye chilis, finely sliced⁣⁣⁣
1 bunch silverbeet, stems chopped finely, leaves more roughly⁣⁣⁣
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed⁣⁣⁣
1 lemon, zested and juiced⁣⁣⁣
2 tbsp olive oil⁣⁣⁣
Salt flakes⁣⁣⁣
Black pepper⁣⁣⁣
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg or cinnamon (optional)⁣⁣⁣

Method
In a large pan or pot on a moderate heat, add about a tbsp of the olive oil and sauté the eschallot, garlic and chilli for 1-2 minutes, or until the eschallot is translucent. Add the finely chopped stalks and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until slightly softened. Add the chopped silverbeet leaves and give everything a good stir to combine and then wait for the leaves to wilt and cook down. Add the chickpeas, combine well. Once the leaves are cooked down to your liking (you may want to keep it a bit fresh and crunchy, or stew until really tender; cook’s choice), remove the pan from heat and add the lemon juice and most of the zest (reserve some for garnish). Combine well and season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. You can also grate a little nutmeg or cinnamon (or both!), to amp up the dimension, if you have it. ⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣
To serve, place the silverbeet onto a bowl, dress with olive oil, salt flakes and remaining lemon zest.⁣ Great as a stand-alone dish, but just as ideal as part of a bigger dining picture. For the train spotters, that is indeed a lime prop, but in all honesty, you could use that instead of lemon and be fine.