Elizabeth Hewson’s pomegranate drizzle cake
I couldn’t help but give one of my favourite cakes, the lemon drizzle, a Barbie-core makeover.
This summer is undoubtedly the season of pink. While I do not follow trends in cooking, I couldn’t help but give one of my favourite cakes, the lemon drizzle, a Barbie-core makeover. Again, I use both the pomegranate seeds and the molasses throughout the recipe – batter, syrup and icing. The cake batter uses almond meal, which gives it a dense, chewy texture; this stands up to the sourness of the syrup and the icing. Don’t be alarmed if your cake has a darker crust – the molasses in the batter causes it to darken more quickly. However, once cut you’ll reveal a deep golden cake that looks so gorgeous draped in this pink, tangy icing. Pink isn’t just a colour, it’s an attitude.
If you like this, try:
- Lennox Hastie’s upside down orange cake
- David Herbert lemon drizzle cake
- Lennox Hastie’s incredible honey cake
Pomegranate drizzle cake
Ingredients
- 160g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 180g caster sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon, plus 3 tablespoons juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 200g almond meal
- 110g plain flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
Syrup
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
Icing
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- Pomegranate seeds and thick cream to serve, optional
Method
- Preheat oven to 160C (140C fan-forced). Grease a 20cm x 9cm loaf tin and line the base and sides with baking paper. Using an electric mixer, cream (beat) the butter, sugar, zest and vanilla together until light and fluffy, roughly 3 minutes. Add one egg at a time, beating well between each addition. Fold in almond meal, flour, baking powder and salt, followed by 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses.
- Pour into your tin and place in the centre rack of the oven. Bake for one hour or until cooked through. (To test, insert a skewer into the cake: it should come out clean.) Meanwhile, to make syrup combine molasses and sugar plus 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan, place over medium heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally to help sugar dissolve. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, use a fork or skewer to pierce holes in it. Pour over hot syrup. Leave to cool in the pan, then turn it out.
- Once completely cooled, mix together the icing ingredients. It will be quite thick but that’s what you want to achieve slow drips down the side of the cake. Pour icing over the cake, slowly encouraging it to run down the sides. Allow icing to set before serving. Serve with pomegranate seeds and cream. Serves 8