I'm posting this a little earlier than planned as I have had lots of requests from social media for it.
Nourishing Nettle and Lemon cake
Makes 1 loaf cake
Ingredients:
2 cups nettles
200g butter
150g sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
zest & juice of half a lemon
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Method:
Pick your nettles and ensure they are as young as possible and only the top 4 leaves are picked to avoid them being bitter.
Obviously avoid where people walk their dogs or where vehicles pass!
Pour boiling water over your nettles and boil for 2/3 minutes. This loses their sting.
Drain and squeeze them out as much as you can.
Add the lemon juice and blitz with a hand blender, set aside.
Cream your butter and sugar, add eggs, zest, vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt.
Incorporate the nettle puree and give it a good mix.
Pop it in to a cake liner/tin and bake for 30 or so minutes at around 180c, testing with a skewer to make sure it comes out clean.
I had to cover with foil half way through as it browned a little more than I'd like
You can cover with frosting or a glaze, whatever takes your fancy. I made a glaze of sugar and lemon juice for this one and it was very nice.
Wow I would never think of nettles in a cake, I 've made nettle soup and my grand mother used them in ginger beer. Your cake looked very green but I bet it tasted very nice.
ReplyDeleteMe neither before seeing a Pinterest post. I think it's something I will make at least a couple of times a year. Yes it was SO green which was all nettles, no colouring or anything. Very good and tasty.
DeleteOh I can’t wait to try this! My kids love using nettles for soup and the 8yo has been known to come back from forest school with nettle tops stashed in his lunch bag as a surprise for me so we can make soup. Love the blog, by the way - I’ve been working through the archives and just catching up with myself. We’re the opposite end of the country in the South West and have an allotment rather than a smallholding :-)
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