Wednesday 26 March 2014

Saucy Little Lemon's Gone Sweet


Lemons. Depending on what mood you're in at the time, when life throws you a big heap of lemons, you can do one of many things;

 sigh and daintily begin making lemonade to sip on whilst you ponder, 
declare how much you liked lemons anyway and stubbornly eat your way through the whole lot,
begin shouting loudly using lots of obscenities whilst biting the lemons, drinking tequila and licking salt,
or roll up your sleeves, grab your wooden spoon and begin grating and juicing and stocking your cupboards with spreads, jams and sauces...

...just to name a few.


Now, I'm a chocolate lover, a strawberry eater, a blackberry picker, a coffee drinker and a hazelnut cruncher. I am not known as a lemon muncher.
But hey, a girl can change.
My brother however, is a lemon lover. His favourite cake in the world is Lemon Drizzle. Lemon Drizzle?! 
In the past I have made him chocolate cakes, usually 6 layers tall and smothered in thick gooey ganache, with chocolate dripping from every surface and toasted almonds and hazelnuts scattered and strawberries nestled and even truffles on top....
But no. The simply little lemon cake still won.
So this year I decided to bake some cake that HE would actually love, not just me...


His actual birthday was in February but he's been away so we celebrated yesterday. I couldn't transport a big birthday cake so instead I baked Lemon and Raspberry Cupcakes. 
Now, unfortunately I didn't get chance to take any pictures before they were all gobbled up, bad blogger. 
BUT I do have this wonderful recipe for Lemon Sauce that I used to fill and drizzle over the cupcakes.

I was thinking about how I make lots of sauces that start off using coconut milk as a base. So I used the same sort of method; simmering coconut milk with sugar and arrowroot powder to thicken, and then just instead of adding chocolate or vanilla, I added lemony stuff. Winner. 
I think this could be made into lemon curd too, it would just need an ingredient that would set it, because this stays liquid.



Sweet Lemon Sauce

Ingredients

Makes just under a pint

1/4 Can of coconut milk - shake well so the cream and liquid are combined.
2 fl oz Water
2-3 oz Sugar - depending on how sweet/tart you like it
Juice of one large lemon
Zest of one large lemon
2 tbsp Arrowroot powder
Little pinch of turmeric - for the colour

All you need to do is....

Warm the coconut milk, water and arrowroot powder in a little pan, stirring until the powder is dissolved.
Now add the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and turmeric and stir.
Simmer for around 2-3 minutes.
Now remove from the heat and using a whisk, beat the mixture hard, until it is smooth and glossy.
Now, pop it on the side and leave to cool a little bit, and yes you're probably wondering why when you dip your spoon into it it resembles weird, stretchy gunk.
Do not fear! It's the arrowroot that's doing that!
So, simply grab your hand held blender and blend blend blend for about 30 seconds.
And there you are! Pourable, drizzly yummy sweet lemon sauce.


Happy baking! x









1 comment:

Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust said...

This sounds fantastic! I love all lemon sauces and curd - yum!