I come from a line of very skilled bakers. My aunt, HK, in London very kindly sent me this book she put together of a collection of delicious lemon cakes. HK is baking a different lemon cake every month for a friend. July is the cake that started it all: the lemon cream cheese butter cake. So I thought it very appropriate to start with that cake, which I baked last weekend. It was deliciously tangy and moist. To make the cake you will need:

125g cream cheese
250g butter
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1.5 cups castor sugar
3 eggs
1.5 cups plain flour, sifted

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 20cm bundt cake tin. I didn’t have a bundt tin, unfortunately. Start by zesting the lemon (is zesting a word?). I used a fine grater that is shaped like a mouse. And Mum don’t worry, that is Shellac on my nails (not polish) so it won’t chip off leaving pink speckles in the cake.

Beat cream cheese, butter and zest together until smooth, add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs in one at a time, beat in the sifted flour lightly in 2 batches until smooth. Spoon the cake mix into your tin and bake at 180C for 30 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 160C for a further 30 minutes.

Have a dance around the kitchen, this is important. (you don’t have to pout awkwardly like me though, or wave a pink spatula around)

Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool further.

To make the glaze combine a cup of icing sugar with about 1 tbsp lemon juice.

Voila! It took a lot of restraint not to eat the glaze. Or the cake batter for that matter. I’m not usually one for raw cake but it was so buttery and creamy and lemony. I might have to adjust my oven temperature next time though, because the edges were a tad crisp.

Plans for the weekend?