Lemon drizzle cake

Karen wanted to learn to bake a cake, she claimed she couldn’t do it, I reckoned she could so we had a practice.

First I asked her to get ingredients…

Sugar, some sort of soft buttery spread, self raising flour, baking powder, I bought her some cake release and lemon extract, there is also a camera shy lemon…it needs to be a reasonably big one, if you only have teeny tiny ones, use two.

Then these were the first instructions

I always cook these cakes at 160 degrees C in my fan oven. It’s cooler than some people do, but it works for me.

The cake release works brilliantly in the tin, but you could just grease well with some butter, or use a tin liner. We used an 8 inch/ 20cm tin.

I also suggest weighing the eggs, if you have three standard 50g eggs, then it will be 150g of sugar (granulated or caster), butter/margarine, and flour; but if you have lovely local large or small eggs from some neighbourly chickens they can vary in size…and I add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder per egg.

I usually use whatever ‘can’t believe this is so utterlicious like butter but spreadable’ is on special offer, but not a lower fat option…it just won’t work as well.

Karen likes things to work in a rush, but she had strict instructions about how long to beat with the mechanical mixer. Two minutes or 120 long counts. This introduces enough air and mixes everything well enough (I think it probably emulsifies the fat too…). On no account do this mixing for less than two minutes.

For the  beating I use the whisk attachment in my machine, but Karen’s handheld mixer worked fine. If you want to exercise your arm you can do it by hand, but do it as hard and fast as a machine would…or at least try.

Then, quick as you can, put it in the tin and shuggle (shake a little bit side to side to even out the mixture) don’t press it down, we want to keep all the air that we put in there during the beating. Then quickly into the oven, and leave it for 30 minutes. Then check to see if it is done. That has to be a quick check because if it is not done, and the cake gets too chilly it can sink…

The cake is done when it is shrinking away from the sides of the tin, the top springs back when you press it, and if you put in a knife or a skewer (or a fondue fork or little flat barbecue skewer) and when you lift it out there isn’t any wet cake mixture stuck to it.

Whilst it is in the oven make the drizzle, put in a bit of lemon zest in a bowl, juice the lemon and put the juice in a bowl, and put 3 dessert spoons (or small tablespoons) of caster sugar into the bowl, you can also add a few drops of lemon extract. If you warm it a little bit the sugar will dissolve better, but it you heat it too much the volatile lemon smells and tastes will disappear into the kitchen and away from the drizzle.

When the cake is done, take it out from the oven and use a cocktail stick or something that size to make holes that go down into the cake. Then pour over the drizzle trying to spread the drizzle evenly over the cake (you can use a silicone pastry brush for this spreading if you have one to hand). Then leave the cake to cool in the tin.

Once it is cool then try to keep it in an airtight tin for 12-24 hours before you eat it (this is honestly the most difficult part) as this will let the drizzle mature in the cake.

You can see where the cake has shrunk away from the sides.

Karen was very pleased with her cake, and so were we when we ate it…