NaNoWriMo Snacks: Lemon Slices

I expect you are all* eagerly anticipating** 'Caitlin Day & All the Horror: Part 2'... but I haven't written that yet. This is about the things I've eating during NaNoWriMo . I am literally procrastinating by writing a blogpost about something I've been doing for procrastination. I should get some kind of award for that.

I want to rename NaNoWriMo InTwEaMo – International Twix Eating Month. I have eaten a lot of twixes during NaNoWriMo but I think it’s important to eat a lot of twixes when you are speedwriting a really bad novel! Sadly, I ran out of twixes and leaving the house when you should be WriMo-ing is bad. Instead I've been baking lots of the things I would have bought at the shop. I know this is illogical because it takes longer, but at least the baking provides some time to think about my NaNo, and my family are happy because they get to scoff some of what I've made.

Today’s recipe is homemade Mr Kipling Lemon slices. Lemon Slices, Bakewell Tarts and French Fancies were my ultimate favourites as a child in the nineties when everyone bought cake and all that people baked was the odd fairy cake or jam tart. I wanted some of this old familiar cakery but I watched bake-off, I know how much faff making fondant fancies is and I really don’t want to be dealing with pastry, so I made Lemon Slices.

Here is the recipe for my Lemon Slices:

Ingredients:

Cake Part (adapted from a lemon layer cake recipe in the Primrose Bakery cupcake book):

112g Caster Sugar

112g Self-Raising flour

¾ tsp Baking Powder

112g Butter (must be very soft)

2 eggs

1 large lemon

Icing (from my brain, hence the lack of measurements):

1 Lemon

Icing sugar

A little water

Yellow food colouring (optional)

Other stuff:

Square cake tin/baking tin about 22x22 cm (you could make it in one sandwich tin and have lemon wedges but don’t tell me about that because I won’t be impressed.) lined and greased etc.

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan)/190°C/gas mark 5

Method one:

Put the dry ingredients into a food processor and mix. Add the rest and whiz until the ingredients are all evenly blended. Don’t over mix.

Method two:

Cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon (the qualities are so small it’s hard to use a hand-held mixer) until the mixture is pale and smooth. Mix the dry ingredients in another bowl. Add the eggs to the mixture, one at a time, alternating with the dry mixture and mix well after each addition. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice from one lemon, beat well.

Pour the mixture into the tin and cook for 25 mins/until they are golden and a tester comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins and then move to a wire rack.

The Icing:

Use all the juice from one lemon and gradually add icing sugar until it makes a thick icing. If you need more icing, add a little water and more sugar. Taste the icing to make sure you like how lemony/sweet it is.

When the cake is completely cooled, spread the icing thickly across the top of the cake.

Optional: keep back a bit of icing and add some yellow food colouring to it and decorate the top with it like a real Mr Kipling Lemon Slice.

Let the icing set before you chop it up.

Eat while you WriMo your NaNo (I am a loser)

*Ha. Hi Laura.

** Probably not as you were there...