Pretty much Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle but with slight changes to the bake, different sugar and more lemon for the topping. I like lemon cakes to be really, really lemony and fresh tasting.
Cake:
6oz butter
6oz golden caster sugar
6oz self raising flour
6oz eggs (3 large free range)
1 tsp baking powder
Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
Drizzle:
Juice of 2 lemons
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
170g golden caster sugar
Beat together the butter and the sugar until pale and well creamed. Add the lemon rind. Golden caster sugar is delicious because it creates a more golden sponge and it's unrefined which also, in my opinion, seems to create a richer flavour.
Lightly beat the eggs and add to the bowl along with the lemon juice.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and then beat the whole mix together, use a spatula to clean down the bowl and give a final mix. Do not over stir.
Pour/scoop into a greased and lined tray, I use my brownie tin which is about 30cm x 20cm.
Cook in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for 20-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin.
While the cake is cooling, make the drizzle topping. Juice the lemons and simply combine with the sugar in a small bowl. Pour or spoon over the cake evenly when still warm.
When the cake is completely cold, place in an airtight container.
The icing / drizzle will firm up and become a crunchy topping while keeping the cake extremely moist.
I can make the batter of this cake in 10/15 minutes, then the cake goes in the oven for 25 minutes and can be iced warm so it is a very quick and simple cake to knock up in a hurry.
It's also a rather shallow tray bake so very forgiving, if it doesn't quite fit the tin you have to hand you can cook for more or less time.
The drizzle topping makes the cake moist and keeps it moist, even if you have been heavy handed with mixing or have over cooked it.
