Let's Bake // Lemon & Poppy Seed Friand!

Hello all!!!!

So university is nearly over for me, I have a few holidays at work and for my birthday in May, Craig bought me a lovely new toy to play with! So whilst I could just bake goods for us and eat them, I have decided to do a weekly segment on my blog where I show you what I bake in the coming weeks!

Now disclaimer, I am not a good baker. I can cook well. Very well, but I cannot bake for the life of me!! I will share with you the good AND the bad if it comes to it (hopefully not as I am really trying to get it right). If a recipe goes wrong, I will show you the aftermath. If things look nice but taste gross, I will tell you. Either way you will be able to witness my awful baking and appreciate it for what it is... a lesson learned!

The inspiration behind my weekly baking comes from a new recipe book I purchased at Costco Wholesale about  a week ago. It is this Retro baking book, published by woman's weekly australia. In it are hundreds of recipes for cakes, tarts, biscuits, breads and all things sweet!

My beautiful mixer

I decided to start with something I have never tried before and definitely have never attempted to make, Lemon & Poppy Seed Friands.

From The Retro Baking Book

What is a Friand you say? I didn't know until I researched into the recipes myself! A Friend is a small, light french cake, traditionally made with ground almonds and melted butter. Little flour is used to create a fluffy and light base. Many different flavours can be used in a Friand, ranging from fruity drizzles to sweet toppings of melted chocolate.

Now in the instructions it says to beat gently with a wooden spoon, but I do not own a wooden spoon. So i decided to defy the instruction and use the beating tool on my mixer. I used it on the slowest setting and with a slow bowl rotation to try and mimic a hand beaten texture. I know this will upset many bakers and for that I am sorry!!!!! One day i promise I will invest in a wooden spoon to beat things with!

And this is how they turned out!

 The friends turned out rather well considering I did't know what one was until I started baking them! They are lovely to eat with a lemon icing glaze and sprinkle of icing sugar on top! It says to eat them whilst they are warm and that is that best advice with these little beauties. As the mixture contains lemon rind, every so often you get a lovely burst of citrus alongside the almond flavoured sponge.

After a sneaky bite!

It would be rude of me not to show you the inside of the cake!! A light fluffy centre full of taste and flavour. The only bad thing about these is the amount of pure sugar went into making them! But for my weekly treat, I guess I can overlook that!

Baking Week 1 has been a success!!! Next week by popular demand, aka Craigs demand, I am making my first every carrot cake!!

Hopefully it will look like this beauty!!!!

Thanks for reading guys and keep checking back for more baking updates!
Have you ever had a friand? Let me know in the comments below!

Bye xxx