February 2022

How did I end up in the kitchen, if it’s usually my husband that makes the food? Well, here is the story.

Some of you may know that we’ve walked the famous Camino – in fact, we’ve had two of these epic adventures.

  • Camino Frances (2017) in Spain – 720km

Camino De Santiago – April 2017 – Introduction

  • Camino Portuguese (2018) from Portugal to Spain – 629km

WHAT ABOUT THE PORTUGUESE CAMINO?

Favourite food:

We were talking the other day about the wonderful food we had on these hikes. And let me tell you, there were definite favourites! Berto had more than his fair share of the delicious jamon (let’s not talk about the beer now) and I never said no to a piece of lemon cake.

We long to do another Camino. But as we all know, getting on a plane with just your backpack isn’t that easy these days (* well, that’s how it is at this stage for us South Africans anyway).

(* This post was written when there were still restrictions on overseas travelling due to the Covid pandemic.)

Since we cannot walk a Camino in Spain while enjoying the food, we will have to bring their food to our South African home. Now, I’m no baker, but thought I’d try the lemon cake in our kitchen.

But before I take you to our kitchen where I will test my baking skills, let’s quickly rewind to 2017 and 2018.

Traditional Spanish Lemon Cake:

Lemon Cake is known as Bizcocho de Limon in Spain. Here are a few pictures of this amazing cake that I enjoyed on our Camino’s:

Camino Frances (2017)

Eating lemon cake while enjoying a stunning view

This was THE best lemon cake I’ve ever tasted! We stopped at a small bakery on the way to O’Cebreiro and I could smell the lemon cake even from the road.

You can read about this day here: https://wetanddustyroads.com/2018/11/28/day-22/

Camino Frances (2017)

A BIG piece of lemon cake

At a small café near Sarria, we needed coffee … and I couldn’t resist the HUGE piece of lemon cake on the counter!

You can read about this day here: https://wetanddustyroads.com/2018/11/29/day-24/

Camino Portuguese (2018)

Lemon cake in Tui with our morning coffee

On our Portuguese Camino, the treat I enjoyed the most was Pastel de Nata (a Portuguese custard). For my first piece of lemon cake, I had to wait until we crossed the border from Portugal to Spain. On our first morning of hiking in Spain, I enjoyed my favourite with our early morning coffee.

You can read about this day here: https://wetanddustyroads.com/2019/01/21/day-21-2/

As you can see, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to taste lemon cake … now it’s time to bake it myself!

My baked lemon cake (with thanks to “Spain on a fork”):

There are many recipes for lemon cake, but I was looking for the real one – an authentic Spanish lemon cake. Thanks to a little research on the internet I found a website, “Spain on a fork” and this guy (Albert Bevia) promised that his lemon cake tastes just like his mother used to make it.

The recipe will appear at the bottom of this post in case you might want to try it yourself. Let’s get the ingredients and start baking (now it almost sounds like an episode from ‘Master Chef’)!

Ingredients for the Spanish lemon cake

The very first thing you need to do is mix the eggs well and then add the sugar. It sounds easy enough, right?

The eggs and sugar are well mixed

And then, even simpler, is to just add the rest of the ingredients and mix them in as well. Really – it’s that easy!

The rest of the ingredients in my mixing bowl
After a minute of mixing (and no lumps), the mixture was ready to be poured out into a loaf pan
Ready for the oven

Now it was a waiting game. After about 30 minutes I started to smell the lemon cake … and in my mind I was back at that little bakery in Spain!

Fresh out of the oven

The final touch was a dusting of powdered sugar over the cake. I even made a typical Camino sign to use as an emblem on the cake … how cool is that!

My Spanish lemon cake under the South African sun

Million-dollar question:

Did it taste like the real Spanish lemon cake? Pretty close … but I think if I put my backpack on, walk for 20km and come back and then eat another piece, it will surely taste just like the real thing.

Sliced and ready to be served

Here is the recipe as per the blog site of Spain on a fork:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cage-free organic eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp sea salt
  • 2 tbsp lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1/3 cup sunflower oil
  • Powdered sugar

Instructions:

  1. Crack 2 eggs into a large bowl and whisk together, then slowly add in 1 cup of granulated sugar while you continue to whisk, once all the sugar is incorporated whisk for another 30 seconds to ensure everything is well combined.
  2. Next add in 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour into the bowl, a generous teaspoon of baking powder, a ¼ teaspoon of sea salt, the zest of 1 large lemon (equals 2 tablespoons of lemon zest), 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, ½ cup of milk and 1/3 cup of sunflower oil, mix together until well combined and there are no clumps in the cake batter.
  3. Grease a 9.5¨ x 5¨ baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and add the cake batter into the baking pan.
  4. Add the baking pan into a preheated oven (bake only option) at 350 F – 175 C. After 35 to 40 minutes, remove the cake from the oven, pierce the middle with a toothpick, if it comes out cleanly the cakes is done, otherwise add to the oven for another couple minutes, let it rest for 15 minutes in the pan.
  5. After 15 minutes remove the cake from the pan (I always like to tap the bottom of the pan so it easily comes out) and transfer to a dish or cutting board, sprinkle with a generous portion of powdered sugar, enjoy!