I know that most people have made a version of a lemon drizzle, but just because it is such a great and easy cake to make, I thought I would write up my version for anyone looking for a simple recipe.
It’s a great lockdown cake! And really easy as it’s an “all in one cake” – you just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
This week I had a Zoom cookalong during lockdown with a friend, and we made this cake, with great success. I have included photos in the post of both our lovely loafs.
While you can bake this in a round cake tin, we baked it into a loaf tin, which cuts into beautiful thick slices! If you haven’t got a loaf tin, bake it in a round cake tin, 18 cm or 20cm.
Tip: it’s important to have the butter really soft and the eggs at room temperature.
Ingredients
Cake
175g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
175g very soft butter
3 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of a lemon
3 tablespoons milk
Lemon Syrup
100g caster sugar
Juice of a lemon
Lemon Icing
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Enough icing sugar to make a dripping icing (about a cup)
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees fan or 180 degrees non fan.
Grease a 21 cm loaf tin with butter. Line the base with baking paper.
To make the cake, place all the cake ingredients (minus the milk) into a large bowl. Using electric beaters, mix the ingredients to a smooth batter with no lumps.
Add the milk to loosen the batter.
Transfer the mixture to the loaf pan. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until the cake is brown on top and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes our clean. Remove from the oven.
While the cake is baking, make the lemon syrup. Heat the sugar and lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes until slightly thickened.
Once the cake is out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer. Pour the warm syrup all over the cake. The cake is still in the pan.
Once cool, turn the cake onto a board or plate. Turn right way up.
Serve as is or with an optional simple lemon icing.
To make icing, put the lemon juice in a small bowl and then add enough icing sugar to make a dripping icing. Using a palette knife, drip a thin layer of lemon icing over the cake.
The Quirk and the Cool 