Lemon Drizzle Cake

Recipe: Moist & tangy teatime favourite

Serves about 10 slices (20 cm loaf)

Preparation time 15 minutes

Cooking time about 40 minutes

Ingredients 100g butter (room temperature)/ 170g self-raising flour/ 170g sugar / 60ml milk/ 2 large sized eggs/ 1 medium sized unwaxed lemon/ 50ml icing sugar

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1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C Fan/ Gas 4.

2 Wash the unwaxed lemon, and grate the zest and squeeze out the juice from the lemon. (You can refer to the lemon zest from my cheesecake recipe.)

3 Tip the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk and lemon zest into the mixing bowl. Beat together and mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

4 Line a loaf tin (about 11.5 x 21.5cm) with baking paper, then spoon in the mixture and level the top with a spoon.

5 Bake for 40-45 minutes until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6 While the cake is cooling in its tin, mix together the lemon juice (45ml) and icing sugar to make the drizzle.

7 Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then slowly pour over the drizzle.

8 Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve. It will keep in an airtight container, or you can freeze it for up to 1 month.

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My first baking experience was a lemon drizzle cake. The ingredients were simple and the instruction was easy, so I was able to easily succeed even though I did not have a good understanding of baking. Lemon drizzle cake is a popular choice for people who like sweet and sour flavours, or a soft and moist texture. I like to have it with a cappuccino or camomile tea because the soft milk foam or the subtle scent of camomile balance very well against the tangy lemon taste.

I usually bake two lemon drizzle cakes at once, having one to eat straightaway and storing the other in an airtight container in the freezer. The instructions or cooking time are the same so it is nice to make two at once because you can take the extra cake out and eat it at any time. If you take the cake out of the freezer in the morning, it is good to eat by the afternoon.

If you use a mixer you need to use a beater attachment, mixing well and unsticking any of the mixture from the bottom of the bowl with spatula. If you don't have self-raising flour and want to make it from plain flour to use in this recipe, you can find how to do that in my Victoria sponge cake recipe.

The cheese grater that I use for zesting is a pyramid shaped grater that can grate to three different sizes. I like the chewy texture of zest, so I grate the lemon using the cheese grater’s bigger holes. You need to use an unwaxed lemon for zest. If using waxed lemons, remove the wax coating first. Put the fruit in a colander and pour over boiling water or rinse under a hot running tap. Then, scrub it all over with a stiff vegetable washing brush. Rinse the lemon thoroughly with cold water and leave it to dry, then make some zest.

Beater attachment and loaf tin liner

The loaf tin size that I used is 11.5cm x 21.5cm. You don’t need to use the same size tin but you can adjust the quantities of the ingredients based on this reference if needed. If you bake the cake without a baking paper liner, you need to brush the tin first with plenty of butter so the cake will not stick.

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In the past, there was a traditional tea time where people would eat cake and drink tea. Lemon drizzle cake is known as one of the British people's favourite cakes along with Victoria sponge. People have enjoyed buttery flavoured cakes with tea for a long time. I guess that’s why the fresh lemon and butter flavour of Lemon Drizzle Cake is enough to make it an indispensable tea time favourite.

Lemon drizzle cake evolved from the classic pound cake and other variations have emerged, incorporating ingredients like dried fruits, spices and citrus.

Cadbury Desserts Corner is one of the blogs that explains about British desserts. It explains that citrus flavours likely became more popular as trade with the Mediterranean introduced newer ingredients not grown or used locally. By the mid-20th century, when rationing was in effect during World War 2, home bakers sought a simple lemon cake recipe that helped them cut back costs.

(This information is based on Cadbury Desserts Corner)

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