Sticky Lemon Drizzle Cake

Hope you have all had a lovely bank holiday weekend! I have been busy enjoying a weekend in Leicester and then a picnic today in the sunshine, so for the picnic I thought I would make a lemon drizzle cake so here is what I made.

ingredients (Makes 1 medium cake)

• 200g unsalted butter (Stork)
• 250g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 unwaxed lemons
• 250g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 100ml milk

method

• Preheat the oven to 180c or 160c fan. Lightly grease the cake tin with a little soft butter, holding it in a scrap of baking paper.

• Grease proof paper the tin on the bottom and around the sides, make sure it is as neat as possible.

• Weigh out the soft butter or stork and sugar and put in a large mixing bowl and then crack the eggs into the bowl. 

• Rinse and dry the lemons. One at a time hold the lemons over the mixing bowl and, using the lemon zester or the fine-hole side of the grater, grate off just the yellow rind (the zest). Take care to leave the white pith on the lemon as it tastes bitter. Save the lemons to squeeze for the topping. 

•  Then weigh out the flour and baking powder and put it into the mixing bowl, then add the milk. This is called the all-in-one method.

•  Set the mixing bowl on a damp tea towel or mat to stop the bowl from wobbling. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon. Scrape down the side of the bowl every minute or so to make sure all the ingredients are mixed together. Stop as soon as the mixture looks completely smooth, with no streaks of flour or egg. 

• Scrape the mixture into the lined cake tin and spread it out so the surface is flat. Scrape down any blobs of mixture that have splashed onto the lining paper on the sides of the tin. 

• Place in the heated oven and bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown. To test if the cake is cooked push a cocktail stick in the middle to see if it comes out clean. If it does take the cake out and place it on a cooling rack. If not put the cake bake in the oven and keep checking until the cocktail stick comes out clean.

• While the cake is in the oven place 100g of caster sugar in a small mixing bowl. Then cut the saved lemons in half and squeeze out the juice using a lemon squeezer. Add the juice to the bowl of sugar and mix well for a minute so the sugar just starts to dissolve to a thick syrupy mixture.

• When the cake is cooked remove it from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Using a clean cocktail stick prick the cake all over, all the way through to the tin, so it looks very holey. Quickly pour all the sugary lemon syrup over the cake. The warm cake will absorb the syrup as it cools, so don't touch it till it is cold. 

• Once the cake has cooled, carefully unclip the tin side (or remove the cake from the tin). Peel off the lining paper. Set the cake onto a serving platter. Store in a airtight container at room temperature. Best eaten within 4 days. 

Recipe adapted from The Great British Bake Off - Learn to Bake by Linda Collister forward by Mary Berry