I would put coriander seeds in everything I made if I could get away with it. I love their clean citrus notes backed up by a heady spiced floral back note. I add them to gin and tonics, to soups and stews, to top dips and scatter over tomato salads. In my mind they are good wherever you might think to use lemon. So here one of my favourite cakes has had a reinvention. For the picture, I poured a syrup made with the juice of half-a-lemon, half-a-tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of coriander seeds over the top. It’s sweet, heady and not at all savoury. Give it a try.
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 4 medium organic eggs
- 150g white spelt flour
- the zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
- 6 tablespoons runny honey
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and crushed to a fine powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 150g ground almonds
Method
- Preheat your oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5. Grease a 24cm cake tin and line with greaseproof paper.
- First, beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy – you can do this in a stand mixer or with a hand-held whisk if you like. Crack in one egg, add a tablespoon of flour and beat until mixed in, then do the same with the other three eggs. Add the lemon zest and juice and the honey and mix.
- In a bowl mix the ground coriander seeds, remaining flour, baking powder and almonds and whisk so that there are no lumps.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the honey mixture until everything is combined. Spoon into the lined tin and smooth out the top. Bake in the hot oven for 50 minutes, until golden brown on top. The honey will make it brown quicker than a normal cake, so if need be cover the tin with foil to stop it browning any further. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
Serves 10
Recipe: Anna Jones
