Lemon 'Drizzle' Cake

The 'drizzle' is what gives this simple cake its oomph and this is the name it is commonly given when it is sold in cafes and cake stalls. We just call it Lemon Cake at home. It is quite a plain one but much loved by its devotees. You can make it as a tray bake, an old fashioned term, or as a loaf.

Lemon Cake

6 oz butter
6 oz castor sugar
3 eggs
8 oz SR flour with a pinch of salt
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
plus 4 oz sugar and juice of 1 lemon

1. Beat the butter (taken out of the fridge in advance, as for any cake, so it starts soft) with the sugar till you get a light pale mixture.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure they are well incorporated
3. If the last one seems to curdle the mixture (which will happen less if you keep your eggs out of the fridge), then add a little of your flour and beat that in. Mix in the fine rind.
4. Then sift in the flour, and using a metal spoon, fold it in carefully.
5. Put into a 2lb loaf tin you have lined with greaseproof - this really is worth the bother even if you have a non stick tin.
6. Bake at No 4 for 1 hour, checking after 3/4hr and putting some extra greaseproof over the top if it is getting rather brown.
7. Have 4 oz sugar in a bowl with the juice of one lemon ready mixed. Prick the hot cake all over, still in the tin, with a skewer and then pour over your sugar/juice mix - this is the drizzle so called.
8. Leave to get cold before you turn it out. You could finish it with sifted icing sugar but it hardly needs it.

Lemon Squares


To make it into a bake, use a shallow rectangular tin, 7'' by 11'', lined, and use only:


4 oz butter, 4 oz sugar, 2 eggs and 6 oz SR flour with a pinch of salt.
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
plus: 4 oz sugar and juice of 1 lemon

1. Make as above.
2. Bake for 30 mins or so till firm and brown.
3. Prick and drizzle with your sugar/juice mix and then when cold cut into squares.

If you want to vary the juice you can try use lemon and orange or only orange. It is still nice, but the lemon flavour is really what make this work.