Pat A. Cake: Lemon Pancake Cake

My throwback recipe from 2014 would make an ideal treat for Shrove Tuesday this week. It is also featured in  the CCC Cook Book 'A Year of Cake' on page 39.

I recently took delivery of a Stainless Steel Earth Pan by Ozeri and wanted to cook something which would really test (according to the manufacturer) the “100% PFOA-Free Non-Stick coating”. According to the manufacturer’s description, the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA has found that PFOA (PerFluoroOctanoic Acid), often found in traditional cookware, once ingested is capable of remaining in people for a very long time, and has been shown to cause developmental and other adverse effects in laboratory animals. Ooooh errr…I am no scientist, simply a humble housewife, but such warnings did raise a slight alarm when I looked at my old, worn and well used pots and pans!

Anyway, what could I cook which would test the pans actual performance and non-stick quality? The answer just had to be a simple pancake. My Lemon Pancake Cake is a perfect and special family dinner dessert, easily put together, with few ingredients.

I used my usual sweet batter recipe:
1 cup flour, 1 cup eggs (2 or 3 depending on size), 1 cup milk, 1 dessertspoon sugar) and 1 tablespoon water. This mix made about 10 pancakes and, much to my amazement, I didn’t have to use any oil at all! During cooking, after the batter was poured in, I was able to carefully lift the edge and turn it over, before finally sliding it out to a waiting plate. Not one stuck

The cooked pancakes were inter-leaved with non-stick parchment and then left to cool. I then lined a loose-bottomed cake tin with cling film and stacked my pancakes, interspersed with lemon curd and a lemon-flavoured cream – 300ml double cream, zest of 2 lemons and juice of 1, all beaten to soft peaks. The tin was then placed in the fridge overnight for the cake to set.

With its combination of manufacturer’s claim for health benefits, as well as its powerful non-stick properties, I will certainly consider buying other products in this range.

................................................................................................

The Stainless Steel Earth Pan was sent to me free of charge but I was under no obligation to provide a favourable review of this product.

Northampton & District Clandestine Cake Club - Healthy Loaf Cakes

This month our Northampton and District CCC group met at The Good Loaf in Northampton centre. It was a lovely evening spent with around 20 old and new members, or I should say ‘friends’. 

Our theme was Healthy Loaf Cakes and many examples were brought along for us to try and all qualified as ‘healthy’ in some form or other. Our examples featured fatless sponges, almost sugarless batters, included vegetables and fruits within the mix, were either eggless or gluten free, used wholemeal flours and oats, and we even had a cake made with a healthy sourdough starter. A great deal of discussion took place on the merits or otherwise of using sugar substitutes and generally it was felt that there is no real alternative – either in flavour or texture - to using the real thing but perhaps it could be reduced or diluted a little in a recipe. 

Chief Executive of the Good Loaf, Suzy Van Rooyen, gave us a most interesting talk about the story behind this artisan bakery and cafe project, which helps ex-offenders back into the world of work through learning to bake, while also generating its own income. She said that the first six months of trading had been a great success and went on to tell us that as well as teaching ex-offenders baking skills, the venue, which is the trading arm of the charity C2C Social Action, also runs a number of volunteering projects, a youth group and now sells bread wholesale to 17 different outlets across the town. I think we all felt that it was a most remarkable venue and I do hope that we will all be able to support the venture by visiting the café in the future and, indeed, let others know of its existence. Our thanks to Suzy and her team for the warmth and welcome afforded to us.

Sadly, I didn’t take any photos during the evening but the camera is primed and ready for our next meeting in March and, on that subject, we have another super host venue to look forward to, so watch out for details to be published on the CCC website in the next few weeks. See you then! Gillian x