Stresa Travel Recipes: Isola Pescatori Lemon Cake

Or at least this is the nearest I've been able to find, short of bugging restaurateurs for their family recipes!

There has been a glut of lovely, untreated lemons at the market the last few weeks so I embarked on a mission to make our favourite dessert from Isola Pescatori: Lemon Cake.

Beautiful lemons from Stresa market

The following recipe drew me in with the beautiful photos on the blog post where I found it. I'm no good at photographing food so take a look at the original post here http://eatlittlebird.com/2012/08/08/lemon-syrup-loaf-cake/ to get your mouth watering! The recipe comes from the queen of cooking, Nigella Lawson (How To Be A Domestic Goddess).

The finished cake ... with a few slices missing!

However, it is the closest I have found to the cake we enjoy at the Belvedere on Isola Pescatori whenever we go. Luca is in raptures about it and we've enjoyed a small slice for "merenda" every afternoon in the office for the past couple of weeks! It is super moist and lemony and keeps very well in an airtight tub. The lastest caked I made last Sunday and the last two slices were still just as good today!

So, here's the recipe and my pitiful photos!

Lemon Syrup Cake

Ingredients

100g icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
2 eggs
2tsp baking powder
175g sugar
175g plain flour
125g butter
Pinch of salt
4tbsp milk
Juice of half a lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

Method

• Line a 2lb/900g loaf tin 
• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in the milk.
• Pour the mixture into the lined loaf tin and bake for 40-45 mins until a skewer comes out clean
• 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time dissolve the icing sugar in the lemon juice in a pan over a low heat until dissolved and the syrup is clear
• Take the cake out of the oven and leave in the tin. Whilst it is still hot skewer the cake with holes all over. Spoon the syrup all over the cake so it runs into the holes.
• Cool the cake in the tin on a wire rack.
• Enjoy!

Let me know if you try the cake and how it comes out. Have you tried the lemon cake on Isola Pescatori?

Sarah, Viaggi Tomassucci