Recipe: Lovely Lemon Drizzle Cake

There are so many wonderful cake recipes to try, and I've tried a few, but I keep getting requests from my family for this really simple, but deliciously zingy Lemon Drizzle cake.  It's taken from a little book called 'Teatime Recipes' by Carole Gregory, and I've done my usual thing - I've reduced the amount of sugar by a third, as I don't like overly-sweet cake.  If you do, just increase the sugar amount back to the original 6 ounces.  For me, with less sugar it tastes better and the lemon flavour really comes through.  So, without further ado, we'll get on with it!

Ingredients:

4 oz (113g) soft margarine/butter
4 oz (113g) caster sugar  (or 6 oz/170g for original recipe)
6 oz (170g) self-raising flour
4 tablespoons (60ml) milk
2 large eggs
grated rind of one lemon

For the syrup:

3 rounded tablespoons (approx 80g) icing sugar (I used a little more, as I like thicker syrup)
3 tablespoons (45ml) fresh lemon juice (for me, the juice from 1 lemon equated to 3 tablespoons)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ̊ C/350 ̊ F/ Gas Mark 4.
2. Grease and line a 2lb. loaf tin (I used a non-stick greaseproof 2lb loaf tin liner).

3. Cream the fat and sugar together.  Then add the eggs, sifted flour, finely grated lemon rind and milk, and mix to a soft dropping consistency.  Put it into the liner in the tin, smooth the top and bake for 40-45 minutes until firm.

4. Mix the sifted icing sugar and lemon juice.

5. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick it and then pour over the lemon syrup mixture.  Leave the cake in the tin until it is completely cold, then enjoy...

Result:

Here’s how the cake turned out:

It’s so easy to make, but always tastes delicious, with a really fresh, zingy lemon tang.  There's usually a fight for the end slices, with all the extra lemon icing.  Mmmm...  Lovely!  This definitely needs to go in the Hall of Fame.  What not give it a try, and come back and tell us how you did?