Lemon and Meringue Tart

I made this tart a few months ago, but hadn't had time to upload the recipe.

I think it looks quite impressive, but it wasn't one of my favourites, too lemony!

The tricky bit for me was to get the meringue toasted... You're supposed to use a torch for this, but I didn't have one, so I tried both with the grill and with a lighter - probably not the best idea!

Anyway, here it goes:

Lemon and meringue tart

For the base:
200 g plain flour
70 g ground almonds
40 g white sugar
1 large egg
85 g butter at room temperature (plus a bit for greasing the tin)
A pinch of salt

For the lemon mix:
200 ml lemon juice
160 g white sugar
140 g butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
20 g cornflour

For the meringue:
2 egg whites
100 g white sugar

Grease the bottom and sides of a 22 cm round oven tin and cover the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.

To make the base, mix the flour, almonds, sugar, egg, butter and salt in a bowl with your fingers.

Now, to extend the base, you're supposed to use a rolling pin over a floured surface. However, I find this quite difficult, so what I did was to take small bits of the dough and mash them with my fingers into the oven tin little by little until the whole base was covered.

Cover the pastry with another piece of baking paper and put some dry chickpeas over.

Bake the base in the oven, at 180C, for 15 minutes. Remove the chickpeas and the baking paper and bake for another 10 minutes.

To prepare the lemon mix, heat the lemon juice with half of the sugar and the butter in a sauce pan. In a bowl, beat the eggs, the yolks, the rest of the sugar and the cornflour.

Add the lemon juice, sugar and butter mix to this bowl (while it's still warm) and beat well. Pour back into the sauce pan and cook at a low heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens.

Remove from the fire, leave to cool down and then pour into the base.

To make the meringue, whip the egg whites and then add the sugar. Continue beating to get soft peaks.

Using a piping bag, form small meringue drops all over the cake. Then use the oven grill or a blow torch to toast the meringue so it gets a golden colour.

Orange Muffins

One of my favourite muffins, so spongy!

Orange Muffins

280 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
100 g white sugar
1 egg
Grated orange rind from 2 oranges
200 ml orange juice
40 ml water
90 ml sunflower oil

For the icing:
4 tbsp orange juice
80 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp grated orange rind

Preheat the oven to 195C and prepare the muffin cases.

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar) into a bowl.

In another bowl, beat egg with a fork and then add the orange rind, the juice and water (240 ml in total) and the sunflower oil.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Stir until just mixed.

Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for 23 minutes.

Mix the juice, sugar and orange in rind for the icing and spoon on the muffins while they're still hot.

Leave to cool down on a wire rack.

Tarta de Santiago

This is a flour-less cake, very typical from Spain, which is incredibly easy to make and really nice.

Tarta de Santiago


250 g ground almonds
250 g white sugar
5 eggs (large)
Lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Icing sugar for decoration

Preheat the oven to 175C.

Mix the sugar, almond, cinnamon and lemon zest on a bowl with a fork.

Add the beaten eggs and mix with a spatula (just enough so it's mixed).

Grease a 22cm springform round oven tin with butter and cover the bottom with baking paper.

Pour the mix into the tin and bake at 175C for 50 minutes, until golden. Once done take it out of the oven and leave to cool down before removing from the tin and decorating.

To decorate, you need to download and cut the cross template (there is one here). Place the template over the cake and sprinkle with icing sugar (using a sift).