Recipe: Lemon Drizzle Loaf

I thought my next post should be short and sweet (see what I did there, cause it's a cake, get it?) considering I've rambled on more than I probably should've in the last few posts!

So, I'm going to share with you the recipe I used yesterday to make a seriously yummy lemon drizzle loaf cake.


You may have already seen pictures of it if you follow my instagram or twitter but this is how it turned out:

It was a rainy June afternoon and this recipe hit the spot just nicely (don't worry, by that I don't mean that I demolished the whole cake!). It only takes about an hour to make, including baking time and it's really easy to do!

So for the cake you'll need:
8cm x 21cm loaf tin and some greaseproof paper to line the bottom of it.
225g of unsalted butter at room temperature (plus extra for greasing)
225g of caster sugar
4 eggs
225g of self raising flour
The finely grated zest of 1 lemon (plus a little extra to decorate the top of the finished cake)
The juice of half a lemon
A drop of vanilla extract

And for the drizzle you'll need:
85g of caster sugar
The juice of 1 and half lemons

Before you do anything, lay out your ingredients and mixing bowls, etc and preheat your oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas mark 4.

1. Take a large bowl and mix together the softened unsalted butter and the caster sugar until the mixture is pale and creamy. You can do this by hand with a wooden spoon but I used an electric hand whisk - be careful at the start or you'll have sugar EVERYWHERE (definitely didn't do this myself).
2. Add 4 eggs, one by one until they are mixed through.
3. Sift in the flour and stir it in with a wooden spoon in a figure of eight motion.
4. Add the vanilla extract and the finely grated lemon zest and mix until it's all well combined. 
5. Spoon the mixture into your loaf tin (which should already be lined with greaseproof paper and greased around the sides with the remaining butter to ensure the cake can be removed easily after baking) and level the top with a spoon.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until you can insert a skewer or knife into the centre of the cake and pull it out clean. Mine took about 55 minutes to be ready.
7.  Take the cake out of the the oven and leave to cool in the tin for around 5 minutes.
8. Whilst the cake is cooling, mix together the 85g of sugar and the juice of 1 and a half lemons until it is combined.
9. Poke the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork before you pour over the drizzle – the juice will sink into the cake making it nice and moist, giving the whole cake a stronger lemony taste. The sugar also forms a nice crisp topping. 
10. At this point, sprinkle some of the finely grated lemon zest over the top of the cake for decoration.
11. Leave the cake to cool completely in its tin before removing it. It will keep its 'loaf' form better this way. 
12. Serve and enjoy - this should serve about 10 slices, but I won't judge you if it doesn't make it that far!  

Ta dah!!

I had a slice this afternoon with a cup of tea and I must say it was pretty darn tasty! Go on, shake the dust off your apron and chef's hat and give it a try!

If you do try to recreate it I'd love to know how it goes - leave a comment :)

Bye for now!