Cakes & Other Recipes Using Fresh Lemons

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The lemon cake featured in Kitchen is the Lemon Polenta Cake (p272). If you like this recipe then you could also try the Damp Lemon and Almond Cake in Domestic Goddess (p12) or, from the same book, the Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake (p13) or Lemon Raspberry Muffins (p74). It is also very easy to make a lemon sponge cake or cupcakes by adding finely grated lemon zest to the cake batter and lemon juice to make an icing or to make lemon-flavoured biscuits (cookies) by adding grated zest to the Butter Cut Out Biscuits in Domestic Goddess (p212) and glazing with an icing made from icing sugar and lemon juice. On a slightly different note you could also try the Lemon Rice Pudding from Forever Summer (p194).

If you have a glut of lemons then you could always make lemon curd. Home-made versions seem to have slightly more vibrancy than the store-bought variety and curds are much easier to make than jams as they don't require lots of boiling. You can use the lime curd to fill sponge cakes or make the Lemon Meringue Fools in Kitchen (p168) or Lemon Meringue Cake in feast (p170). The Lime Curd recipe in Domestic Goddess (p344) can be made using an equivalent amount of lemon juice and zest. Lemon curd will keep for 1-2 weeks in the fridge.

On a slightly ore savoury note you can also make Middle Eastern style preserved lemons which don't require massive amounts of work, though they do need to be left for a few weeks to mature. They are useful for adding to tagines, stews and other dishes and they keep for up to a year in the fridge in most cases. Nigella doesn't have a specific recipe for preserved lemons, though there are plenty available on the internet.