Since citrus seems to be the only decent thing in season at the minute, it looks like we’re in for a pretty citrusy couple of weeks. Like my mandarin jam recipe, this bundt cake contains whole, boiled citrus giving the cake a moist, dense crumb with a bitter lemon flavour. This recipe uses a lot of olive oil so the oil that you use really affects the flavour, if you want a stronger flavour, use a really good quality extra virgin olive oil, if you’re not that bothered, you can use whatever you have!
Since this recipe already involves boiling lemons, I thought it would be a good opportunity to make a bit of candied peel for the decoration, once the peel is boiled, some of the bitterness is removed, it then just needs to be simmered in syrup to finish it off. Most recipes call for a simple sugar and water syrup but I like to add lemon juice, it brings a bit of zing making the final product reminiscent of sour sweets. It also makes the perfect soaking syrup making this recipe really low waste!
Onto variations, my recipes can almost always be customised and I would encourage anyone to have a bit of fun with different variations! First of all the toppings, if you don’t feel confident adapting recipes this is the easiest thing to change, the white chocolate and olive oil ganache can easily be swapped out for a simple lemon & icing sugar icing, lemon curd or just leave it off all together. If you fancy changing the actual cake, oranges or clementines (or any kind of baby orange) work really well in place of lemons and you can even get into swapping the ground almonds for other nuts. And of course shape, these bundt tins, while beautiful, are not cheap, this cake works perfectly in an 8” tin, you might just need to reduce the bake time slightly. What I’m saying is that the possibilities are endless, if you’re ever wondering about adapting one of my recipes but aren’t sure my DMs are always open and I’m happy to advise 😊.
Whole lemon bundt cake
2 whole lemons
2 lemon peels (save the flesh for juice)
230g olive oil
300g caster sugar
3 eggs
300g ground almonds
150g plain flour (or fine polenta to make it gluten free)
3 tsp baking powder
Lemon syrup
100g caster sugar
100g water
Juice of 2 lemons (the ones saved from the cake)
Olive oil white chocolate ganache
50g double cream
100g white chocolate
20g good quality olive oil
To decorate
Candied lemon
Gold leaf (optional)
Method - Cake
Boil the whole lemons and lemon peel for an hour, discard the water and leave until cool enough to handle.
While they cool, grease and flour the bundt tin and preheat the oven 160°C
Set aside about 4 strips of lemon peel (this will be
used to make the candied peel)
Remove any seeds from the whole lemons, roughly chop and blend with the rest of the peel until roughly chopped.
Add the sugar, egg and olive oil to the blender and blitz until smooth.
Add the almonds, flour and baking powder and blitz to combine, this is quite a thick cake batter so you might need to scrape down the blender a few times to make sure none is stuck around the edges.
Pour into the bundt tin and give it a tap to remove air bubbles.
Bake for 50 minutes-1 hour until a skewer comes out clean.
When the bundt comes out of the oven set a timer for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a plate or cake board.
Lemon syrup and candied peel.
While the cake is in the oven get the candied peel going.
Combine the sugar and water and bring to the boil.
Cut the lemon peel we saved from earlier into strips and simmer in the syrup for
10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, leave the candied zest in there until ready to use.
Olive Oil White Chocolate Ganache
Heat the cream and white chocolate gently in the microwave.
Stir until combined then add the olive oil.
Set aside until it reaches a thick but still pourable consistency, it needs to be thicker than you think before using!
Assembly
Remove the candied lemon from the syrup and using a pastry brush drench the cake, it seems like it’s too much but use all of it, just keep going!
Once the cake is cool and the ganache is the right consistency, pipe it onto the top of the cake, don’t do this while the cake is still warm or it will all just run off!
Decorate with the candied lemon and gold leaf.
Enjoy!