Lemon & White Chocolate Squares

My great-niece Grace found a lovely recipe for something called Little Lemonies which looks very good indeed.  The recipe is on Mel’s Kitchen  Cafe website where they are referred to as Lemon Brownies.  I decided to adapt the recipe slightly, particularly using a different topping.  For my topping I wanted to include white chocolate to give a nice creamy texture to the squares.

These squares are simple to make, and by not over-mixing the ingredients the cake is denser that a sponge cake, more like a Madeira or pound cake texture.  It tastes delicious and the white chocolate ganache on top really works well to give a rich creaminess to the squares.

I made mine in a deep cake tin, but a 1.5 to 2 inch deep 8inch square tin will work very well.

These squares taste delicious, so be prepared to eat more than one at a time, as you will surely want to.

Ingredients:
For the cake batter:

• 142g(1 cup) plain flour
• 150g (3/4 cup) caster or granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 113g(1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 45ml(3 tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

• 170g(1 cup) white chocolate chips
• 60ml(1/4 cup) double cream
• 14g(1 tbsp) butter
• 1 tsp lemon zest, plus extra to sprinkle on top.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F
2. Grease an 8 inch (20cm) square cake pan.
3. Place the flour, sugar, lemon zest, salt and baking powder into a large bowl and stir thoroughly to mix together.
4. In another bowl whisk the eggs, butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract together until all combined.
5. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until all is just combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and shake to level into all corners.
7. Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until the top of the cake is springy to the touch an a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.
8. Allow the cake to cool completely.
9. Place the white chocolate, butter, lemon zest and cream into a bowl and microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring each time, until the mixture is combined to a nice thick ganache.
10. Pour the mixture over the cooled cake and spread to cover the entire top surface.  
11. Shake the cake pan to level the ganache.
12. Sprinkle some extra lemon zest on the top.
13. Place in the fridge to cool and set(it will firm up but not be solid like chocolate).
14. When chilled well remove from the cake tin and take from the parchment paper.
15. Cut into 16 equal sized squares and serve.