Lemon Drizzle Cake

Dear Diary,

Decided to make a cake today. I have a friend’s 21^st birthday coming up and I promised him something with lemon in it so I made a lemon drizzle cake. I don’t get to play with the ingredient very much as the people I normal bake for don’t like it!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I tried this a week ago and it failed miserably! The person I was baking with decided to poke holes in it like a normal drizzle cake, but my recipe didn’t ask for it so it didn’t really work, leaving it stodgy as it all sunk down.

Needless to say I followed the recipe and it turned out perfectly, I was quite proud to be honest!  The cake was nice and springy. The only problem came with the icing, I hadn’t made glace icing before and the first attempt came out…. Well let’s just say different! The recipe said to put 1 & ½ lemons juiced in and I made the mistake of putting it all in with the icing sugar in one go. This just left a very lemony-icing-sugar mess, I then added the water to try and dilute it, making it more watery and just somehow not right! Thankfully I realized what I had done wrong before I put it on the cake and had enough lemon left to try again and get it right.

Here is the recipe that I used for it:

175g Unsalted butter

125g Caster Sugar

4 Medium eggs

3 Lemons

175g Self raising flour

125g of Icing Sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC / gas mark 4, and line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Put the butter (softened) into a bowl with the caster sugar and mix it together until it is light and fluffy.

3. Gradually add the beaten eggs and then zest 2 of the lemons and mix it in, then juice half of a lemon and add that to the mixture.

4. Fold in the flour.

5. Put the mixture into the tin and then in the oven for 40-50 minutes (until a skewer can be inserted and come out clean).

6. For the topping gradually add *half of a juiced lemon to the icing sugar and then a tsp (teaspoon) of water until it is at the thickness that you require. Then add the zest of the last lemon and mix it in.

7. Finally spoon the mixture on top of the cooled cake and enjoy it as it drips all down the sides.

*The recipe I was following said to add the juice of 1 and a half lemons but I felt that it was too much.

I don’t think I have ever learnt so much from baking a single cake, but it was fun and I do hope I get to learn with the rest of my cakes, just with not such expensive ingredients!

Give the recipe a go yourself and let me know what you think of it, or any changes you would make :D

Love Lousia xxx