NutritionSortLoading...
Loading...

175 grams soft unsalted butter

150 grams caster sugar

100 grams rice flour (or plain flour / all-purpose flour if you don't need this to be gluten-free)

75 grams ground almonds

50 grams full-fat Greek yogurt (at room temperature)

A pinch of fine sea salt

1½ teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if necessary)

3 large eggs (at room temperature)

1 large unwaxed lemon

2 x 15ml tablespoons undiluted elderflower cordial

3 x 15ml tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (from the lemon above)

100 millilitres undiluted elderflower cordial

Select allAdd

1. Heat the oven to 180℃/160℃ Fan/350°F. Butter an ovenproof dish (mine measures 26 x 17 x 5cm / 10 x 7 x 2 inches, though any ovenproof dish of the same depth, with a 1.5 litre / 6-cup capacity would be fine).

2. Put the butter, sugar, rice flour, ground almonds, Greek yogurt, salt, baking powder and eggs into a processor. Finely grate over the zest of the lemon and blitz until you have a thick batter. Pour the 2 tablespoons of elderflower cordial through the funnel of the processor, with the motor still going, until combined.

3. If you don't have a processor, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together until smooth, light and aerated. In another bowl, mix the flour, ground almonds and salt together, add just 1 teaspoon of baking powder; you don't need as much for the non-processor variant, as you're whipping more air into the batter. Beat 1 egg into the butter mixture, and when that's combined, beat in a third of your dry ingredients, and carry on in like manner until eggs and dry ingredients are used up. Finally, beat in the Greek yogurt and the 2 tablespoons of elderflower cordial.

4. Pour and scrape this fragrant, slightly nubbly and quite delicious batter into your prepared dish and bake for approx. 25 minutes, covering loosely with foil at 20 if the top is browning too much.

5. While the pudding cake is in the oven, prepare the drizzle. Mix 3 tablespoons of juice from the zested lemon and 100ml / 7 tablespoons of elderflower cordial in a jug.

6. When the pudding cake is out of the oven, prick the sponge and drizzle with the elderflower lemon syrup. Eat warm with double cream. This is an order!

Notes

Should you want to make the drizzle cake version, proceed as below, only leave out the Greek yogurt altogether and bake the batter in a 20cm square tin, lining the bottom and sides with baking parchment first. (You could use a 20cm round Springform tin, in which case, just line the base and butter the sides.) Oven temperature and baking time are the same for both pudding and cake. As soon as the cake has come out of the oven and is sitting in its tin on a wire rack, prick the cake all over and pour over the lemon & elderflower drizzle as per step 5 below but, unlike with the warm pudding version, leave to get cold and then sprinkle a tablespoon of granulated sugar over the top before cutting into slabs.

Whichever way you choose to go, this is a profound joy.

I have just a couple more things to tell you before I leave you to it. I use rice flour for this, not primarily because it makes it gluten-free, but because I marginally prefer it this way. However, if you don’t need it to be gluten-free and would have to go to the shops to get the rice flour, just use the plain flour you have in your cupboard. Finally: although this happily feeds 4-6 (depending on age and appetite) please don’t be put off making it should there be fewer of you; any leftovers can be microwaved most satisfactorily….