My little nephew sings while eating. Well – he doesn’t actually sing with open mouth and all, he’s a very well brought up lad – but he hums softly. It’s quite cute, him sitting there, happily noshing the food he’s clearly enjoying, and making little hum-hum-tiddly-poms under his breath. Of course it doesn’t happen when boiled carrots or soggy rice pudding are placed in front of him because his humming is the sound of food making him happy.
This is exactly the kind of cake that can make you hum when eating it. It’s the one-slice-is-never-enough cake. It’s the how-come-there’s-none-left? kind of cake. And it’s easy, easy-peasy, even my nephew could whip it up, given the permission to later hum to it.
The amount of lemon zest might scare the fainter-hearted but trust me – that’s what it needs. Too often lemon cake recipes result in nary a whiff of the citrus. Lemon cake must be gutsy, very moist and in addition have that little je ne sais quois to stop it from being boring – this one has a crunch of poppy seeds and slightly chewy texture from the oatmeal. Courtesy of Dan Lepard (‘Short and Sweet’).