Grapefruit Drizzle Cake

An accident can be a fortunate one, and a disaster isn't always a disaster.

This cake is a fortunate accident that had a true disaster moment, one that had me swearing very loudly and angrily in the kitchen. But then every last crumb got eaten, with people coming back for thirds. So it really wasn't the end of the world. 

But the accident of its birth? I bought a grapefruit from Tesco's. I'm on a major fruit kick at the moment - the purchases that day were a huge punnet of kiwis, 3 passion fruit and aforementioned grapefruit. This is probably the only time in my life I have seen a grapefruit and had a huge urge to buy it, so I did. It was only when I got home that I looked at the grapefruit and realised I COULDN'T EAT IT. 

No, this isn't some sort of weird "I can't eat that poor innocent yellow fruit." This is an "I can't eat this because it might potentially kill me" moment. Basically, when you're on SSRI's they tell you not to eat grapefruit and not to drink grapefruit juice because grapefruits are filled with strange, evil enzymes that are out to get you. They make you break down the SSRI's too effectively and this can theoretically lead to a dangerous situation called serotonin syndrome. (I really don't sound like an educated biologist, do I...)

I guess having read the SSRI leaflet and been told NOT to eat grapefruit, my brain had stored this information in such a way that when I saw the grapefruit, a grapefruit message was triggered, but I didn't get the full memo. "Hi! This is your brain! GRAPEFRUIT! I think there was more to it than that, though. I'll get back to you later. But yeah, grapefruit." Is that the best you can do at trying to off me, brain? Better luck next time. 

But I hate to waste food. So I hatched a cunning plan. If I baked it in something instead... I'd only be getting a tiny bit... right?

Well, sort of wrong, seeing as I actually ate about a sixth of the cake in the end, but I guess that's still a lot better than eating a whole grapefruit by myself. 

This is a good summer cake for taking into the garden with friends and tea. Picnic cake. Lazy afternoon cake. 

Oh, and the disaster? I took it off the greaseproof, placed the greaseproof on the hob, realised the hob was on, panicked, tried to take it off and at that moment, the cake, which was still in my other hand, decided to split (fairly neatly and exactly) into two halves. I could have cried. I very nearly did. But instead I trimmed it up, ate the bits I trimmed off (which magically made me feel a lot better) and iced it as if nothing had happened. Sort of.

It's how it tastes that counts.

Grapefruit Drizzle Cake

This recipe was found at Tracey's Culinary Adventure, and originally came from "Ad Hoc at Home" by Thomas Keller. This is slightly adapted from the original to use self-raising flour, though you can of course use plain and baking powder instead. I also used medium eggs instead of the large specified in the original, changing the number accordingly, and adjusted the amounts of juice etc used so that the whole recipe can be made using one grapefruit, rather than the two that the original needed. Also, I had far too much icing, but I'm leaving the original amounts here as I couldn't really tell you how much you should need without making the cake again. That will be happening soon, don't worry.

For the Batter

2 cups self raising flour (or 2 cups plain and 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder)

1 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon grapefruit zest

2 large or 3 medium eggs (room temperature)

1 cup whole milk (original recipe says room temperature, mine wasn't)

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the syrup

approx 1/2 cup grapefruit juice

1/3 cup granulated sugar

For the Glaze

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon juice

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

2. Grease and line a 9 x 5 inch load pan with greaseproof paper, overhanging it to make the cake easy to remove from the tin.

3. In a large bowl, rub the granulated sugar and grapefruit zest together with your fingertips until well combined.

4. Add the eggs and beat with an electric mixer for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture thickens and a trail is left.

5. Measure out the milk, vanilla and oil, then add them while the mixer is running, if possible.

6. Sift in the flour (and baking powder, if using) and add the salt. Mix on low speed until just combined.

7. Pour into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, then rotate and bake for the remaining 20-30 minutes (you want to cook for an hour in total, I just turned it at 40 because that felt safer to me.) When ready, a toothpick should come out clean. 

8. Poke deep holes in the cake using a cocktail stick or similar; I probably made about 20. Leave to cool in the tin. 

To make the syrup

1. Add the grapefruit juice and water to the saucepan. Now, the most important thing is that you have enough grapefruit juice for the glaze. Use the rest for this, and if you have less than 1/2 a cup, like me, make up the rest with water. You're boiling most of the liquid off anyway.

2. Bring to a simmer, supposedly. I had mine on a rolling boil. Just keep going until it reduces to a thick syrup; this will take several minutes. You don't have to stir constantly, but stir occasionally to see how it's doing.

3. Brush the cake with the syrup.

For the Glaze

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the grapefruit juice and mix until smooth. It needs to be thick enough to not run everywhere, but thin enough so you can flick and drizzle it artistically. You'll know if it's right. Mine was ever so slightly too thick - most of it was fine but I had one huge blob that annoyed me. It's sort of hiding, peeking out. Darn blob.

Anyway, yes. Make this cake. It's my new favourite drizzle cake and if you're willing to risk your health for a cake... it must be really good.

p.s. I'm not dead yet so I'd say that the amount of grapefruit in here is PROBABLY safe if you're on SSRI's. But I'm not a medical professional and I take NO responsibility for interactions with medication. Seriously, read about it, preferably talk to your doctor, and make your own decision if this is an issue that affects you. I'm on a low dose and the information seems patchy and conflicting. Maybe the cooking denatures the enzyme - I just don't know. If you're eating a SENSIBLE amount of this cake (i.e. not as much as we did) then... oh, I just don't know. Anyway, no legal responsibility yada yada CAKE.