Luscious Lemon Drizzle Cake

This is perfect sunshine food! Luscious lemon drizzle cake, it's easy to make, doesn't take long to cook and your friends will be swept away by the freshness and lovely deep sweet lemon flavour.

All you need is:
100g/4oz butter
175g/6oz self - raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g/6oz golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
6 tbsp milk
finely grated rind of 1 large lemon

For the icing:
juice of one large lemon (3 tbsp)
100g/4oz golden caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c and butter and line the base of a shallow oblong tin and line the bottom with baking paper.

Take a large bowl and mix all the ingrediants together for 2 - 3 minutes until the mixture drops easily off the back of a spoon. Pour it into the tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until golden and a beautiful smell fills your kitchen. While its cooking, make the icing by beating together the lemon juice and sugar. Once the cake comes out of the oven, pour it over while its sill hot and let it soak into the cake. Leave to cool.

Cut into squares and serve with iced home made lemonade! Summer bliss!

Lemon zest cake

I arrived back from my holiday yesterday and couldn't wait to get back in the kitchen and get baking! I decided the first thing I would bake would be a lemon cake as I put a little poll on my blog a few weeks ago asking what I should bake next and the lemon cake won, so here it is! I've just eaten a slice and I have to say lemon cake is so delicious with a real tangy kick.

You will need:

125g (8oz) margarine

125g (8oz) caster sugar

125g (4oz) self-raising flour (sieved)

2 medium eggs

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 unwaxed lemon

For the lemon icing:

250g (8oz) of icing sugar (sieved)

2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Take a 7 inch cake tin and line it with grease proof paper and grease the sides with a little margarine or butter.

In a large bowl cream the sugar and the butter together until it looks light and fluffy. Add in one beaten egg and mix together. Add the second egg with a tablespoon of flour and mix again. Add the rest of the flour and fold it into the mixture, followed by two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Using an unwaxed lemon grate in some lemon peel to really set the flavour alive with lemon zestiness! Make sure everything in mixed in and pour into the cake tin. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Once the cake looks golden and your kitchen is filled with a lovely lemon smell remove it from the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove it from the tin and leave it to cool.

To make the icing sieve 250g (8oz) of icing sugar into a bowl and mix it with 2-3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. You want your icing to be quite thick; if it is too runny add more icing sugar. Once your cake has had time to cool, pour the icing onto the cake and use a metal spoon to spread it around, let the icing drizzle down the sides and decorate how you wish. I used some liitle autumn leaves that I bought in america!