Lemon Drizzle Cake
The drizzle goes on hot, so it soaks in rather than sitting on top. Zest in the sugar, not the batter.
- Prep
- 20m
- Cook
- 50m
- Waiting
- 30m
- Total
- 1h 40m
- Serves
- one 900 g loaf
- Effort
- Easy
Scale
Units
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 1 cup | Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers 2m The abrasion releases the citrus oils — far more flavour than zest stirred in later. | Beat until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time 6m If it curdles, add a spoonful of the flour and carry on. | Fold in and scrape into a lined tin 3m | Bake at 180°C / 350°F until a skewer comes out clean 50m | Skewer the hot cake all over and spoon the drizzle on 3m Hot cake, cold drizzle. The sugar stays crunchy on top and the juice soaks in. | |
| from 3 lemons | ||||||
| 1 cup | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 1 3/4 cups | ||||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| 2 tbsp | ||||||
| from 3 lemons | Stir together but do not dissolve 2m | |||||
| 1/2 cup | ||||||
-
Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers
2m- caster sugar 1 cup
- lemon zest from 3 lemons
The abrasion releases the citrus oils — far more flavour than zest stirred in later.
-
Beat until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time
6m- from 1 Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers
- soft unsalted butter 1 cup
- eggs 4
If it curdles, add a spoonful of the flour and carry on.
-
Fold in and scrape into a lined tin
3m- from 2 Beat until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time
- self-raising flour 1 3/4 cups
- fine salt 1/2 tsp
- whole milk 2 tbsp
-
Bake at 180°C / 350°F until a skewer comes out clean
50m- from 3 Fold in and scrape into a lined tin
-
Stir together but do not dissolve
2m- lemon juice from 3 lemons
- granulated sugar 1/2 cup
-
Skewer the hot cake all over and spoon the drizzle on
3m- from 4 Bake at 180°C / 350°F until a skewer comes out clean
- from 5 Stir together but do not dissolve
Hot cake, cold drizzle. The sugar stays crunchy on top and the juice soaks in.
Zest in the sugar
Citrus flavour lives in oil glands in the peel. Rubbing zest into sugar ruptures them mechanically and the sugar crystals carry the oil through the whole batter. Zest stirred in at the end gives you visible flecks and about half the aroma.
Notes
- Granulated sugar in the drizzle, undissolved. That crackly top is the point of the cake.
- Skewer generously — thirty holes, right to the base.
- Keeps four days wrapped, and improves on day two as the syrup distributes.