baked in individual cupcake moulds, and turned upside down

If you do not have any sour cream, try substituting creme fraiche or even buttermilk, or put 1teaspoon white wine vinegar into a cup and top with 250ml milk.  Allow this to stand and curdle, then use in place of the sour cream.

• Cream 250g unsalted butter and 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar, until pale golden and fluffy.
• Beat in 6 large free range eggs, one by one
• followed by the finely grated zest of 2 organic, unwaxed lemons.
• If you have a good quality lemon oil or essence you can add 1 teaspoon, if you only have the synthetic stuff, it is better to leave it out.
• Beat in 1 cup (250ml) of sour cream or creme fraiche.
• Sift 2 cups of plain (cake) flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and fold into the mix.

Pour the mix into buttered and floured tins.  This should do twelve giant cupcake moulds, or 1 large ring.

Bake @ 160*C for 20- 25  minutes, or a little longer for a ring.

Make sure a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool, then unmould.  Leave upside down and when cool spoon over an icing mix made from the freshly squeezed juice of your lemons mixed with enough icing sugar to make a viscous but pourable frosting.

Top with a dusting of icing sugar for extra bling, and a chubbily blushing raspberry if you are lucky enough to find them.

a ray of lemony sunshine on a late summer's afternoon

It has been far too long since I’ve participated in a food blogging event, but halfway around the world from home, and with a deli to run, bending my week’s menu around a blogging event becomes somewhat challenging.  GYO (Grow Your Own) seems to sidestep all that as the title really encapsulates the only rule, and even this Andrea has been known to bend.

GYO also goes right to the heart of everything I like to strive for in food, encouraging us to use local (like in our own garden) and seasonal produce.  This has it’s own difficulties in a worldwide culture of instant gratification.  But also it’s own special rewards.

As if these delicious sour cream lemon cakes didn’t go straight for the g-spot (that’s the ‘gasp! how yummy!’ – spot, for the uninitiated), there is the added satisfaction of knowing I kneaded and squeezed every delicious drop of citrussy goodness out of home-grown lemons, un besmirched by modern chemicals and pesticides.  Strictly speaking, I didn’t grow my own, as the lemon tree in question is in my mom’s mountainside African garden, but she’s always saying what’s hers is mine…

Baked in individual shaped cups, and inverted to show off their gorgeous architectural lines, these little cakes are all around show stoppers, especially drizzled with a little lemon zest icing and topped with the most indecently chubby raspberries just coming into season.  The sour cream in the sponge ensures a cake that improves over a few days, but I’m here to tell you you’ll just have to take my word for it as they will never last past the first afternoon.

Gasp! How yummy!

As usual , I’m posting my recipe to the sidebar, and don’t be shy about giving it a try, it’s really easy.  And for other GYO entries this month check out the roundup at Andrea’s.