Lemon Drizzle Cake

As Great British Bake Off started last week, we thought we would take some inspiration and try to bake one of the three things baked on the show. Last weeks three were Lemon Drizzle, Jaffa Cakes and Mirror Glaze. We went for Lemon Drizzle, lets be honest, who really wants the stress of a mirror glaze?

We came across a few different recipes that called for a variety of different ingredients. Some wanted baking powder, some didn’t. We decided to just take a mix of all and go from there, after trying and testing we found a mix of ingredients that worked quite well. As lemon drizzle cake is a bit of a classic we wanted to keep it as close to the original as possible in regards to taste, look and texture.

We had the choice between making a standard round cake or loaf, we opted for loaf in this case as it stands taller and you can see where the sugar syrup has seeped in and made it all juicy. However this recipe can still be used to make a decent sized round cake, it didn’t all fit in our loaf tin so we made a separate ramekin, which worked out pretty well as an individual dessert as well.

Before mixing the cake mixture, we made a quick lemon sugar. Basically you rub the zest of the lemon together with the sugar to release all the natural oils from the zest and this helps bring out the flavour into the sugar. This is definitely worth doing for the over all flavour of the cake.

Lemon Drizzle is one of those cakes that just hits the spot, it’s not over indulgent, it’s just simple and effective. Get a nice strong brew and a nice sweet slice (wedge in my case) of lemon drizzle and sit yourself down in from of the TV. It reminds me of my mum, I don’t really know why though. She never baked it, I just remember there was a lemon drizzle cake in the top cupboard just a bit too far out of reach for me as a kid.

Ingredients (Serves 10-12)

For the cake

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g caster sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 4 large eggs
• 275g self-raising flour
• 100ml buttermilk

For the lemon sugar syrup

• 150g caster sugar
• Juice of 1 large lemon
• 50ml water

For the lemon icing

• 50g icing sugar
• 1 tsp water
• 1tsp lemon juice (there is a lot of lemon in the cake already, so you can opt to make without lemon in the icing)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180c/160 fan/gas mark 4 and grease and line a 24cm loaf tin with baking parchment.
2. In a small bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest as mentioned above. Add the softened butter and beat together until its nice and creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time to your butter and sugar mix. Between adding each egg, beat the mix until incorporated being careful not to over mix also be sure to scrape around the sides and the bottom of the bowl to make sure no bits are missed.
4. Sift the flour into the mix and beat again, just before this is all incorporated add the buttermilk and lemon juice and mix again until they are combined.
5. Spoon the batter into the loaf tin and smooth the top with a spatula or the back of spoon. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. We found this needed a little more baking so we put it back in for an extra 5-10 minutes.
6. Once the cake is completely baked, leave on the side to cool in the tin for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, make the lemon syrup by heating the sugar, lemon juice and 50ml of water in a small saucepan on a medium heat. Stir until the syrup runs clear, this may take a couple of minutes, at this point take off the heat.
7. While the cake is still warm, poke holes into the top of the cake using a skewer or fork and then pour the hot sugar syrup on top and allow to soak into the cake.
8. Allow to cool completely and then remove from the tin.
9. Finally, make the lemon icing by sifting the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the lemon juice and water and mix until you have a thick, runny icing. Drizzle the icing of the cake, then slice and eat.

 

• If the cake starts to colour to much on top, then cover with tin foil to avoid the cake burning.
• This cake will keep for up to 4-5 days stored in an airtight container.
• When lining your cake tin with parchment paper, leave some to hang over the sides as this makes it easier to get the cake out of the tin.

Much Love, Rob & Jordan-Anna