Judging by my Instagram and Facebook feeds, it looks like most of London has been out playing in the snow this weekend. Not me. I opted to observe the snowfall through the kitchen window whilst writing, planning furnishings for the flat, baking, cooking and looking for a few designs for a design project. I ended up using peach clipart and lemon clipart, which I thought were pretty cool. I also loved every minute of watching the winter wonderland that is the back garden.

I found this recipe online but tweaked it slightly as I didn’t have enough ingredients to make a whole batch. I also added more lemon rind and juice because I love my cakes lemony. The bonus of this recipe is that it is also suitable for people with an intolerance to gluten.

Mini lemon and pistachio cakes
Serves 9

Ingredients

Cake
100g ground almonds
50g desiccated coconut
125g course ground polenta
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
115g unsalted butter
65g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
Rind of two lemons
Juice of one lemon

Icing
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
125g golden icing sugar
1 tbsp water
Handful of pistachios

Method

Pre heat the oven to 170 c and grease a muffin tin

1. Mix almonds, coconut, polenta and baking soda in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, or electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until pale.
3. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar, one egg at a time and mix thoroughly. Add lemon juice.
4. Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture and pour into a greased muffin tin. Place in pre heated oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. While the cakes are in the oven, add the sugar, water and lemon to a pan and heat on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Coarsely chop the pistachios.
6. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Drizzle the icing sugar on top and sprinkle a few crushed pistachio nuts on top.
7. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea!