This is the bake that got Ovenderful its first ever order. I baked 10/11 of these of as tea-cake loaves for Diwali gifting. At that stage, in end of 2013 this was a all-purpose flour one. Soon after, I reworked on it to make a wholewheat one with changes in the recipe.
Now you know why this is an extra special recipe for me – because I was totally clueless about all the non-baking related aspects. How to price it, how to plan the baking – I had an 18 litre Morphy Richards OTG that barely took in 1 loaf. I had an extremely hectic full-time job and a year old baby.
But do you know what are the things I will never forget? The money I earned for this order is what I will never forget. The frantic way of trying to create a pricing “approach” is what I will never forget. The 10 times that I mixed batter and 10 times that I washed that single loaf tin in which I was baking because that was all I possessed – I will never forget.
Because of the faith of a single friend who thought I could do it for her. She knew it more than I did.
A glimpse of how I had packed the loaves in 2013 for Diwali.
Wholewheat Lemon Walnut Cake
Recipe Ingredients
115 g butter
100 g sugar
2 eggs, separated
Grated rind of 2 lemons
2 tbsp lemon juice
215 g wholewheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
125 ml milk
55 gms walnuts chopped
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup cream cheese ( if you want to make the sauce topping)
2 tbsp icing sugar
Recipe Preparation
- Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a loaf tin and keep it ready.
- Cream the butter with the sugar, until light and fluffy.
- Beat the egg yolks into it one at a time.
- Add the lemon rind and juice and mix well until blended.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder 3 times.
- Fold it into the butter mixture, alternating it with milk.
- Fold in the walnuts and set aside.
- Beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form, fold in the eggs whites into the walnut mixture carefully until just blended.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake until the knife/toothpick inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
- Baking time is about 40-45 minutes.
- Whisk the cream cheese with the icing sugar.
- Top the cake with the cream cheese once it has cooled off.
My Tip: The tangy flavours of lemon and cream cheese go beautifully with the earthiness of walnuts and wholewheat.
