Lemon and coconut syrup cake

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well not today! A lemon and coconut syrup cake was on the menu today for a little afternoon treat. It originally started off just as a way to use up some of the abundance of lemons my parents had on their tree (thanks again!) but a normal lemon cake is something I make regularly so I decided to add some coconut for another flavour dimension and make this cake with greek yogurt making it delectably moist.

 

Lemon and coconut syrup cake

Prep time:20  Cooking time:40  minutes  Serves:8

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup lemon juice (for me this was 2 and a half lemons)
• Zest of a large lemon
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup of greek yoghurt
• 2 cups of self raising flour 
• Shredded coconut to top 

{For lemon syrup}

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• zest of 2 lemons
•  1/2 cup castor sugar
• 2 tbs of water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to and grease cake tin. Make sure it ISN'T springform as you will be pouring syrup over it while in the tin and don't want to lose any of the sweet flavour. I used a silicon heart mould from ikea.

2. In a large mixing bowl crack the eggs and beat together with the sugar until they are pale and creamy.

3. Zest and juice the lemons and stir into the egg mixture.

4. Pour in the yoghurt and coconut oil to the batter and stir to combine.

5. Sift over self raising flour and fold into mixture. 

6. Pour into tin and bake for 30-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. While the cake is baking make the syrup as directed in the following steps.



7. In a small saucepan combine ALL ingredients listed for lemon syrup. Stir over a low-medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and syrup has thickened. 

8. Immediatley after pulling the cake from the oven, stab at least 20 more holes into it so the syrup will sink in more easily and pour syrup onto the cake in an even layer.

9. Add the shredded coconut to the pan that held the syrup and this will absorb any left over juices. Then top the cake with the shredded coconut.

10. Stand cake for at least 15 minutes to absorb syrup (I left mine for around 25).

11. Remove  cake from tin and place onto a plate or serving platter and serve cold with extra greek yoghurt or warm with thickened cream. 

Lemon thyme fish

There's a family story I am always reminded of when I make fish. As a toddler, my Dad used to go fishing quite frequently and for some unknown reason I fell in love with a particular type of fish. A yellow belly fish to be exact (technically Golden Perch), or, as I used to call it a 'lellabelly'. Often as he came home from a day of fishing, I would immediately pester him "Daddy you bring me a lellabelly?!" If the answer was yes, I was of course delighted, but if the answer was no I would cry, sook and sulk. Not even a consolation of "but sweetie look I caught you these big red fins!", could make it better. Thankfully, I'm now older (and hopefully a bit wiser) and love most kinds of fish and seafood but this marinade in particular has been making frequent appearances on my dinner table. This spring, pink ling has been my 'go to' fish for this recipe, although I hope that soon I'll get a chance to try it with some 'lellabelly'!

  

Lemon thyme fish

Prep time:10  Cooking time:10 minutes  Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 4 fillets of your chosen fish either fresh or fully thawed (I used pink ling)
• 1 cup of plain flour
• A small bunch of lemon thyme 
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves 
• 2 tsp onion salt
• 2 tsp garlic salt
• Cracked pepper to season 
• Oil for frying 

Method:

1. Combine flour, onion salt, garlic salt and a generous amount of cracked pepper on a large plate. 

2. Finely chop lemon thyme and combine with lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.

3. Prepare a frying pan with oil on place on medium to high heat. As the pan is heating, place the fish in the flour mixture and liberally coat both sides 

4. Place fish into the pan and cook until the side that is down is a rich golden brown, and then flip.

5. Once the fish is flipped, spoon on some of the lemon thyme mixture on top. Only placing it on one side makes sure that while the flavour still sinks in to the fish, it is overpowering and the outer of the fish still stays relatively crisp. 

6. Cook until the other side of the fish is golden brown and crisp, adding more oil between fillets as necessary and serve with sides of your choosing.