Baking | Tray Bake: Quick lemon drizzle

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.  

Baking | Lemon Citrus Basil Fairy Cakes

In the summer everyone asks me for lemon drizzle cake but it's so simple to make and gets a bit repetitive so I made up this recipe for Lemon Citrus Basil Fairy Cakes which also helped me find things to do with my three enormous Basil plants which I split from 1 Sainsbury's growing herb pot. 

The gorgeous weather we had combined with a spot by the sink where I didn't forget to water it meant it rapidly took over the kitchen until I re-potted it. So for a £2 plant I did very well for Basil last summer.

RECIPE 

12 Hole Tin 
12 Cake Cases
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4
    
CAKE: 
7 oz Self Raising Flour  
7 oz Golden Caster Sugar
7 oz Free Range Eggs (weigh your eggs, to about 7 oz which will be 2 or 3)
7 oz Butter, Softened.
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 Lemon (Zest and Juice)

ICING:
8 oz Icing Sugar
2 oz Butter, Softened.
1 Lemon (Zest and Juice)
For a less rich icing, you can omit the butter and use more lemon or lime juice.
 
FILLING:
Lemon Curd
I use Delia Smith's recipe for Lemon Curd, I love making jams, preserves and different flavoured curds so had this already in my cupboard. 

You can use a shop bought jar, I won't bore you by saying it isn't the same, we all know home made anything is better. I recommend the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Lemon Curd as a very good substitute, it is zingy and creamy with no glutenous wobble.
The Tesco's Value jar is tasteless but at 22p a jar will provide you with a wobbly filling, if you squeeze even a little bit of left over lemon or lime and mix it in it will improve it slightly.

DECORATION:
Basil Leaves
Lime Zest (Decoration) 

 INSTRUCTIONS:
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy. 
You are adding air here as well as mixing so do it for about 3 or 4 minutes. 

Crack the eggs into the mix, add the lemon juice and zest, sieve in the flour and baking powder and then mix gently until fully combined. 
Do not over mix.
 Use a spatula and clean down the bowl to make sure the ingredients are all incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into the cake cases, make sure they are evenly distributed.
Put the cake tray into the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, keep and eye on them and remove when you stick a skewer into a cake and it comes out clean.
Remove from the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Now make the icing. Whizz the softened butter in a bowl with the lemon zest and lemon juice, then sieve in the icing sugar and combine. 
The longer you whip the icing, the lighter it becomes. 

When the cakes are 100% cold, use a small sharp knife and slice round holes into each cake.

Add a teaspoon of lemon curd to the space in each cake and replace the top.
The cakes MUST be cold or the filling will melt into the cake.

Pipe or smooth on the icing to the top of the cake.

For decoration, add a leaf of basil  and a sliver of lime zest.