Orange, Lemon and Poppyseed Friands

 

These sponges make further use of the egg whites from our recent ice cream making. The friand sponge is moist with a slight crunch from the poppyseeds. It is full of flavour from the citrus zest, and combines wonderfully with the orange and lemon curd and sweet icing. Their small size would make them a delicious offering for afternoon tea. 

Recipe - Makes 8 mini loaf cakes

For the cake: 

• 3 egg whites 
• 75g butter 
• 40g plain flour 
• 70g ground almonds 
• 120g icing sugar
• Zest 1 lemon
• Zest 1/2 orange
• 1 tbsp poppyseeds
• Melted butter and flour, to grease 

For the orange and lemon curd:

• Zest 1 lemon
• Zest 1/2 orange 
• Juice 1 lemon
• Juice 1/2 orange
• 25g butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour

For the icing:

• 60g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp orange and lemon curd, sieved
• 2-3 tsp water

Start by preparing the mini loaf tins by brushing with melted butter and dusting with flour. Set aside until needed.

Put the butter in a pan over a medium heat and stir to melted. Set aside to cool a little. 

Whisk the egg white in a clean bowl to frothy. Put the flour, icing sugar, lemon and orange zest, poppyseeds and ground almonds in a bowl and gradually beat in the egg white. Tip the melted butter down the edge of the bowl and mix in. Divide between the tins.  

Bake 200C for 15 minutes until lightly browned and the sponge springs back when pressed gently. Cool for a couple of minutes in the tin then tip upside down and gently shake out. Place on a wire rack to cool. 

Meanwhile, make the lemon and orange curd by combining the juice, zest, caster sugar and butter in a pain. Stir over a medium heat until melted. Mix the cornflour with a small amount of water to form a paste, then whisk into the curd. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool and thicken. 

Once the cakes are cool, cut the horizontally through the centre to divide into two. Transfer the cooked curd into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain piping nozzle and pipe the curd on the bottom sponge piece to form little dollops of curd all along each edge. Place the top sponge piece on top gently. 

Make the icing by mixing the curd, icing sugar and water together to make a slightly runny and pipeable icing. Transfer to another piping bag fitted with an icing noodle. Ice the top of the cakes by piping lines across the top. Leave to set before serving.