I have been experimenting with traditional buttermilk lately because I make so much butter. Butter makes everything taste better and it is a great way to save money (especially when the cream is past its used by date and on special) and I am always doing some sort of baking so I go through a lot. Consequently, I always seem to have buttermilk in the fridge or freezer.

I have to be honest… I only made butter once before my Thermomix, but make it all the time as it takes between 3 – 5 minutes, so that is worth it for me, especially when the out of date cream is only $1 and it make better butter than in date cream!

Traditional buttermilk this the liquid that is left over from the first push of the butter (before you wash it). It seems to make everything fabulously light and fluffy.**.You can buy cultured buttermilk in the supermarket, but none I have seen is actually real traditional buttermilk. Most of the imitations have all sorts of gunk in them that I can’t name. The only place that I have bought traditional buttermilk from is the Myrtleford Butter Factory, because it is the real deal, but I am sure there are other dairies that see the real thing too!

Anyway back to buttermilk. I have been trying lots of different recipes (wait till you try Tuesdays buttermilk roasted chicken) and I love a good lemon syrup cake. This is a long time favourite recipe that is tried and true and I have added the buttermilk and tweaked the recipe and found that it worked really well with this delicious cake/dessert.

So If you have a Thermomix make some butter, save the buttermilk and make this cake… If you don’t have a Thermomix you can buy the buttermilk from the shop or just use normal milk… it will work just as well! The cake may be a shade denser.

** The reason why buttermilk makes cakes, scones, pancakes etc… lighter and fluffier is because the liquid proteins in the buttermilk coat the flour and stop the water from being dried up in the cooking process. This the same with oil based cooking, the oil does the same thing as the buttermilk.

Ingredients – Cake

250g Butter

1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest (rind)

1 Cup Castor Sugar (200g)

4 Eggs (separated)

2 Cups Self-Raising Flour (320g)

1 Cup Buttermilk (250g)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

For Thermomix version you will need 

Pinch of Salt and a Pinch of Cream of Tartare

Ingredients – Syrup

1/2 Cup (125g) Lemon Juice

1/2 Cup Sugar (100g)

1/4 Cup Water (60g)

Method – Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC and grease and lightly flour a 20cm spring form tin.

2. Separate eggs, setting aside yolks for later.

3. Beat egg whites until light and fluffy and set aside.

4. Cream butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.

5. Beat in eggs yolks one at time until all combined and add vanilla (it might look split, don’t worry)

6. Add half the flour and half the buttermilk and mix well then add the remaining flour and buttermilk and milk till well combined

7. Gently fold in egg whites until combined into cake mixture and pour in tin.

8. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour until golden brown and a cake skewer comes out clean. (this always depends on your oven and how hot it is)

9. When cooked remove cake from the oven and immediately pour over half the syrup mixture. Allow to cool and serve in slices with a little extra syrup drizzled over the top of eat piece.

Method – Syrup

1. Combine all syrup ingredients into a saucepan

2. Heat syrup until all sugar is dissolved then bring to the boil.

3. Remove from the heat and follow the directions in the Cake Method.

THERMOMIX METHOD

This recipe was made in the TM5 on manual and exact quantities can be made in the TM31.

Method – Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC and grease and lightly flour a 20cm spring form tin.

2. Separate eggs, setting aside yolks for later.

3. Place secured Butterfly into mixing bowl with egg whites, inch of salt and cream of tartare and beat 3 minutes/speed 3. Set aside eggs whites, clean and dry bowl very well.

4. Into the clean dry bowl, place lemon rind and sugar,  mill 15 seconds/speed 10 then scrape down the sides of the bowl very well.

If your lemon rind is a bit dryer it will mill better.

5. Place secured Butterfly into the mixing bowl with softened butter and beat, 1 minute/speed 3, scrape down the bowl and beat again 3 minutes/speed 4. In the 30 seconds of beating, add the egg yolks and vanilla through the lid hole and allow to finish beating.

6. Add flour and buttermilk to the mixing bowl and mix 30 seconds/speed 4.

7. Add set aside egg whites to the edges of the mixing bowl (if you put it in the middle it doesn’t seem to mix as well) and fold in, 1 minutes/speed 2.

8. Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour until golden brown and a cake skewer comes out clean. (this always depends on your oven and how hot it is)

Before adding the syrup… it is good to have a few cracks as it allows the syrup to go into he cake better! 🙂

9. When cooked remove cake from the oven and immediately pour over half the syrup mixture. Allow to cool and serve in slices with a little extra syrup drizzled over the top of eat piece.

Method – Syrup

1. Combine all syrup ingredients into mixing bowl and cook 2 minutes/100º/speed 2.

2. Follow the directions in the Cake Method for syrup use.

You could serve this cake just by itself or with cream, ice-cream… or even a yummy homemade lemon or vanilla custard to make it really desserty. I hope you enjoy my version of this lovely cake that is delicious both warm and cold! What is something you would like to experiment with when it comes to food…? why don’t you from me a line and say hi!

Enjoy Irresponsibly!

Liz xx

If you liked this post maybe you could like these too?

Black Forest Cupcakes (Thermomix Method Included)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (Thermomix Method Included)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing (Thermomix Method Included)

Elizabeth Connolly

subscribe to receive 3 FREE eBooks

I have been cooking since I can remember. I am a Thermomix consultant, so now (whenever possible) try to give you Conventional AND Thermomix methods for the recipes. I like to share tips on how to save money and how making food from scratch isn't really that hard (especially with a Thermomix). If you have any questions about the Thermomix or cooking/food in general please email me as I'm happy to chat.
Liz xx
P.S Don't forget to subscribe to receive your 3 free e-Books.