I love lemon drizzle cake- it tastes great and it's unbelievably simple to make quickly from store cupboard ingredients- even if you don't have actual lemons!
I am known for last minute invitations, today being no exception. A friend who missed my birthday party asked if she could come along "some time" to see the latest progress of our (very slow build) garden room/conservatory/west wing and of course I invited her to come along this afternoon.
Now this particular friend is the queen of baking. She produces multi-layered, complex cakes often with unusual ingredients.They are invariably mouth-wateringly delicious.
I am not a natural baker. I don't particularly like complex recipes. I debated experimenting with the slightly shrivelled potatoes and cucumber in my fridge then (luckily for my friend) spotted a bottle of lemon juice and decided to stick with my loyal standby, lemon drizzle cake.
I love this recipe as you can just bung all the ingredients into a food processor, hurl it into a lined loaf tin and bung it in the oven. The magical step of the crunchy lemony sugary topping is easy and it's a wonderful treat with morning coffee or afternoon tea.
Now I am a numpty so absolutely every time I make this recipe I forget that I don't have a 1lb loaf tin. Note to self: buy a 1lb loaf tin. I often hand over surplus mix to little people to "scrape the bowl" but they are at school today so I decided to make a few lemon drizzle cupcakes instead.
They will go into lunch boxes tomorrow and I will look like some kind of fit, homely mother to the food police teachers inspecting lunch boxes for rogue jaffa cakes and crisps. (Hoping the teacher who reads my blog can take a joke!)
Anyway, here we go.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
175g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
175g butter or baking margarine
175g sugar
3 medium eggs
2 tbsp milk
lemon zest from 2 lemons or 1 tbsp "instant" bottled lemon juice
Drizzle topping
juice of 2 lemons, strained, or 60ml bottled lemon juice (or follow guide on bottle)
115g caster sugar
Method
Preheat oven to 180c, 160c fan, gas mark 4.
Grease and base line a 1lb loaf tin (or a 1/2lb loaf tin if you want to make some cupcakes too, or lay out 12 medium/large cupcake cases.
Bung all ingredients into a food processor (or bowl) and beat together until smooth.
Spoon mixture into loaf tin or cases.
If using 1lb loaf tin cook for 1 hour. Bake cupcakes for 30 minutes and 30-40 minutes for smaller loaf tin.
Make drizzle topping combining sugar and lemon juice until it is a lovely syrupy mix.
Now opinions vary on the next step. You can turn the cake out, cool for ten minutes, make some holes in the top using a skewer and drizzle topping over.
I prefer to leave the cake in the tin, let it cool for ten minutes then make the holes and drizzle the mixture over.
Whichever, leave cake for about an hour until the topping goes hard and crunchy.
Cupcakes -drizzle about 2 tsps drizzle icing mix over top of each cake. I recommend buying decent cupcake cases or using silicon which will prevent cases going too soggy.
Now this particular friend is the queen of baking. She produces multi-layered, complex cakes often with unusual ingredients.They are invariably mouth-wateringly delicious.
I am not a natural baker. I don't particularly like complex recipes. I debated experimenting with the slightly shrivelled potatoes and cucumber in my fridge then (luckily for my friend) spotted a bottle of lemon juice and decided to stick with my loyal standby, lemon drizzle cake.
I love this recipe as you can just bung all the ingredients into a food processor, hurl it into a lined loaf tin and bung it in the oven. The magical step of the crunchy lemony sugary topping is easy and it's a wonderful treat with morning coffee or afternoon tea.
Anyway, here we go.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
175g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
175g butter or baking margarine
175g sugar
3 medium eggs
2 tbsp milk
lemon zest from 2 lemons or 1 tbsp "instant" bottled lemon juice
Drizzle topping
juice of 2 lemons, strained, or 60ml bottled lemon juice (or follow guide on bottle)
115g caster sugar
Preheat oven to 180c, 160c fan, gas mark 4.
Grease and base line a 1lb loaf tin (or a 1/2lb loaf tin if you want to make some cupcakes too, or lay out 12 medium/large cupcake cases.
Bung all ingredients into a food processor (or bowl) and beat together until smooth.
Spoon mixture into loaf tin or cases.
If using 1lb loaf tin cook for 1 hour. Bake cupcakes for 30 minutes and 30-40 minutes for smaller loaf tin.
Make drizzle topping combining sugar and lemon juice until it is a lovely syrupy mix.
Now opinions vary on the next step. You can turn the cake out, cool for ten minutes, make some holes in the top using a skewer and drizzle topping over.
Whichever, leave cake for about an hour until the topping goes hard and crunchy.
Cupcakes -drizzle about 2 tsps drizzle icing mix over top of each cake. I recommend buying decent cupcake cases or using silicon which will prevent cases going too soggy.
