When life ain't pretty

when life doesn't bring you lemons...


Yesterday was one of those unforgiving January days (unforgivable is perhaps a better description). The light levels remained persistently low all day and the colour levels were set to damp grey. Add to that the fact that it was Monday and we had definitely all started our day with a firm case of Monday morning blues it was very clear that remedial baking was required.

I returned home after the school run to a house that was in need of warmth and comfort. I knew that filling my kitchen with the domestic scents of an oven filled with baking would sooth my soul and cheer my family. I instinctively decided on lemon because citrus, in particular lemons, are the very antidote to January, the contrast of sweet and sour upon the tongue, that wonderful oily zest. Baking with lemons brings the Mediterranean right into my kitchen in these darkest months.


So imagine my disappointment when I discovered a distinct lack of lemon in the fruit bowl. Instead of the three plump lemons that I required for the sweetest, stickiest of lemon cakes all I could produce was one rather dried specimen.

A reasonable amount of sighing later and new inspiration struck. Frozen raspberries (complimented by all the zest that one lemon could muster). I love frozen raspberries, we sprinkle them on porridge, stir them into yoghurt, scatter a few through the apple crumble. They are like a little bit of summer sitting in my freezer.


So a raspberry cake it was. I made this cake a great deal last summer. Weekly in fact. I always meant to blog about it but found it was invariably eaten before I managed to take any photographs. It was most definitely the cake of the summer. As you can see this winter version proved equally elusive when it came to photographing but take my word for it, it was good. A little mouthful of summer in the depths of January, perfect.