Lemon Drizzle Loaf

It seems to me I have been making a lot of citrus flavoured treats of late, well a lot for me any way. I have surprised myself as I've always really been an avid devotee towards chocolate. But again this week I found myself zesting a juicing lemons like it was second nature.

The main reason I went for Lemon Drizzle this week is because there was yet another Charity bake sale at work, this time for Children in need. I'd usually make a carrot cake or something similar, but with it being just a week before pay day I needed a cake that the ingredients for would be pretty cheap. So of to tesco I went and came back with the ingredients for a Lemon drizzle cake. (Oh and 24 Peanut butter cookies which I also made for the sale - Recipe for these featured in an earlier blog.)

And here's the Lemon Drizzle Loaf:

 You can see the little bits of crystallized lemon zest over the top.

And here's how it's made:
(Recipe slightly adapted from the Hummingbird bakery recipe)

320g Caster Sugar
3 eggs
Zest of 2 lemons
350g Plain Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
250ml Milk
1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
200g Unsalted Butter, Melted
Juice of half Lemon

For the Lemon Syrup

Juice of 1 1/2 Lemons
Zest of 1 Lemon
75g Caster Sugar
100ml Water

You will need: 23x 13 (or approx 2lb) loaf tin

Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Put the sugar eggs and lemon zest in a bowl and beat until well mixed. In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking powder and mix together. In a jug mix together the milk and vanilla extract. Add one third of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and beat well, then beat in one third of the milk mix. Repeat this twice until all ingredients are combined. Add the lemon juice and beat all the ingredients together (on a high speed if using an electric mixer) until light and fluffy.
Pour in the melted butter and beat until well combined. 
Pour the mixture into a loaf tin and bake for about 1 hour 15 until golden brown and the sponges springs back when touched.

While the cake is baking, put the lemon juice, zest, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a low heat. Raise the heat and boil until it has reduced by half or until you have a thin syrupy consistency.
When the hot cake comes out of the oven leave to cool slightly in the pan and then turn onto a wire rack, Place this in or over the sink. (this is to catch any drips from the syrup)  Prick the cake all over to make small holes for some syrup to soak into, and I found a great tip from watching Nigella Lawson that the perfect thing to do this with is a piece of uncooked spaghetti. Then pour the syrup all over the top and the excess syrup will run down over the edges into the sink. And that's it. It's a great afternoon tea cake.

See all the syrupy lines down the side of the cake.

That's it

Have fun baking

Cupcake Kris
xx