I’m pleased to report that Granny is surviving her time at tech – week four is over and I am slowly getting into the grove of being a student. Am stoked to have had gotten two good pre-assessment results (including a “faultless”), I just need to get over my nerves and bring it out when it counts for assessment proper next month. (Mind you, given the number of canapés I’ve made over the years, it would have been kind of embarrassing to have mucked them up.)

I quite like cooking in the morning. While the 8am starts can be brutal – that’s 8am in pressed whites in the kitchen – it means we’re done and dusted either just before or just after lunch. Gives the geek in me time to review the theory and do some planning. Oh, and the washing, house work, kindy pick-up and jump on the tramp with the little guy.

One of the bonuses of the course is having food to bring home. This means not having to think very hard about the evening meal, have to love that. Friends in the city are also likely to benefit, so ignore my lunch time phone calls at your peril!

While we haven’t done any baking at school yet (bring it on), I’ve been doing a reasonable amount at home. As many of you know, I adore lemons. I’ll devour many varieties, skin and all. Here’s a scrummy lemon syrup cake recipe with the twist of adding passionfruit curd. You could use lemon curd for an extra hit or could leave the curd out altogether if you don’t have any. Whatever decision you make ingredients wise, the cake will always be a winner.

Lemon Syrup

125ml lemon juice (a big thanks to my neighbours Ingrid and Chris for their fresh organic lemons)

50ml water

110g caster sugar

Cake

115g butter

180g caster sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

220g plain flour

2½ tsp baking powder

150ml milk

2 Tbsp finely chopped lemon rind

3 Tbsp (approx.) Barker’s Passionfruit Curd (word of warning, this is a dangerous ingredient – it’s divine straight from the jar!)

Make the lemon syrup by putting the syrup ingredients into a saucepan and dissolving the sugar over low/medium heat. Once dissolved, simmer for about five minutes before taking off the heat and transferring to a jug to cool.

Turn oven to 180°C and line or spray a loaf tin.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add to the creamed mixture. Pour in the milk and rind and mix gently to combine.

Spoon about half of the mixture into your prepared tin. Then drop small spoonfuls of passionfruit curd in two rows on top of the mixture (about six ‘blobs’). Using a knife, ‘cut’ through the blobs of curd to create a ‘trail’, but don’t fully mix it into the cake.

Spoon another quarter of the mixture into the tin and add another layer of curd as above. Top with the remainder of the mixture and smooth with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 45-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Pour the cooled syrup slowly over the cake (remember: cool syrup/hot cake).

Let the cake sit in the tin until cooled, before turning it out.

Cut slices and enjoy with a cuppa.