It’s been a weekend of baking in my house. We’ve made bread (in a machine obviously), pizza and even a cake. Now I can knock up a fairy cake or two but when it comes to a big cake I don’t have the best track record. I once made a cake that was black in the middle (before you ask, no I didn’t microwave it) and could have been used as a weapon so whenever I say I’m going to make one Jonny’s eyes don’t exactly light up with glee at the thought of tempting treats but occasionally I do get one right and this time was one of those!
I made lemon drizzle cake from the Ladies Book of Baking which my Mum bought me for my birthday. It’s a really good book and whenever I’ve made anything out of it it has come out exactly as it says it should. Perhaps Mary Berry is right and if you follow a recipe to the letter then it just works?! I only substituted one thing, where the recipe asks for margarine I opted for butter. I simply can’t stand margarine and kind of just think if you’re going to do something then you may as well do it properly. My cake came out moist and lemony and unctuous and I ate rather too much of it so sent what was left off to work with Jonny this morning! I will definitely be making it again!
If you want to make this recipe then this is how I did it and like I said, I used butter rather than margarine as per the original recipe.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
6oz of caster sugar
5 and a half oz of soft butter
Freshly grated rind of one lemon
6oz of self-raising flour
125ml of milk
For the Syrup – 5oz of icing sugar and 50ml of fresh lemon juice
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 and grease a 7 inch loaf tin. Put the eggs, caster sugar and butter in a bowl and mix until smooth and fluffy. (at this point I noticed my eggs had curdled a little so rang my Mum for advice. She said to add a sprinkling of flour and beat which magically did the trick. she’s a brilliant cake maker my Mum!) Stir in the lemon rind then fold in the flour lightly and evenly. Stir in the milk mixing evenly then spoon into the loaf tin.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and remove from the oven to stand on a wire rack still inside the tin. Using a skewer make lots of holes over the cake.
Mix together the syrup ingredients and warm over a low heat but don’t boil then pour over the top of the cake allowing it to be absorbed. Leave to cool completely in the tin then remove and cut into squares.
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