Today was my daughter’s summer school fair, and my contribution to the day’s festivities was to bake some cakes. I managed to be reasonably organised and do most of this the evening before, but made sure to save a bit for Saturday morning, to guarantee a bit of extra chaos. I baked the requisite cupcakes decorated with sweets (jellybeans in this case), and a lemon and poppy seed loaf for the more mature punters. I had wanted to try out the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery’s Cake Days book, but didn’t have the ricotta cheese I needed. Instead I returned to my tried and tested Nigella recipe from Domestic Goddess and added a couple of tablespoons of poppy seeds. This recipe is great and always turns out well, though I would recommend lining the sides of the tin as well as the bottom as the lemon syrup glues the loaf to the tin. This is not what you need when you’re running late for a ballet class and need to get out of the door as quickly as possible.
