Lemon Drizzle…My ‘Go To’ Cake

It’s happened to us all… you get that call to say visitors are on their way and you have nothing in the house to give them with a cuppa!!!

If you need a cake in a hurry, then this is the one to get you out of a pickle 🙂

Lemon Drizzle is one of the all-time classic cakes and I bet most people who enjoy baking will have a recipe for it in their repertoire!  This is my recipe and I have lost count of the number of times I have made it.

It is also the bake which I generally leave for guests to our Shepherd’s Hut and have had so many positive comments about it.

Makes:  8 – 10 Slices

Ingredients:
115g Butter
175g Caster Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Large Lemon
175g Self-Raising Flour
4 Tablspns Milk
60g Icing Sugar

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (Fan 160°C) 350°F or Gas Mark 4
2. Grease or line a 2lb Loaf tin with baking paper.
3. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of your mixer and beat together until pale and fluffy (You can also use an electric hand whisk)
4. Add the eggs in one at a time and beat until incorporated – if you notice the mixture curdling after you have mixed in the first egg, just add a tablespoon of the flour
5. Finely grate the lemon and add the zest to the mixture along with the flour and milk and beat together until well mixed.
6. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
7. Meanwhile, squeeze the juice from the lemon and mix together with the icing sugar until the sugar is dissolved
8. As soon as the cake is cooked and removed from the oven, make lots of little perforations over the top and then spoon the syrup over it.
9. Leave to cool completely in the tin before turning out.

-:COST:-

As an added exercise on this post, I thought it would be a good idea to calculate the cost of making this Lemon Drizzle.   You might be surprised to know that it cost only €2.06 to make one cake which wouldn’t even cover buying a single slice in a Cafe! (Note – I buy the majority of my baking supplies in either Aldi or Lidl)