How I make lemon drizzle cake
Hi. I'm Yves. I'm 7. Today I'm baking a lemon cake. The kind that goes sticky on top. It's called lemon drizzle.
What lemon drizzle is
It's a yellow cake with lemon in it. When it's still warm, you poke holes in the top and pour lemon juice mixed with sugar over it. The juice goes in. The sugar stays on top and gets crunchy. That's the drizzle bit.
From the outside it looks like a normal cake. It isn't. Trust me.
What goes in
225g. Soft means leave it on the side for an hour. Not melted. Not hard from the fridge. Bendy.
225g for the cake. Plus 85g more later for the drizzle. Caster is the fine sugar, not the big crunchy bits.
4 big ones. Crack them in a small bowl first so if a bit of shell falls in I can fish it out.
225g. Self-raising is the flour with the puff already in it. If you only have plain, the cake won't go up.
Two and a half. One gets grated for the cake. One and a half get squeezed for the drizzle. Roll them on the table first, they give more juice.
The long thin shape. About 14 by 24 cm. We line ours with greaseproof paper so the cake comes out easy.
How I make it
- Heat the oven. 180°C if it's a normal oven. 160°C if it's a fan one. The grown-up does this bit.
- Cream the butter and sugar. Soft butter and 225g of sugar in a big bowl. Mix until it goes pale and fluffy. Not yellow, almost white.
- Eggs in. One at a time. Mix between each one. If it looks a bit lumpy that's normal.
- Flour in. Sift it through a sieve so there are no lumps. Mix gently. Stop when you can't see white bits.
- Lemon zest. Grate the yellow skin of one lemon. Don't grate the white bit underneath, it's bitter. Stir it through the mix.
- Tin time. Line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Pour the mix in. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon.
- Bake. 45 to 50 minutes. Stick a thin skewer in the middle. If it comes out clean, it's done. If it comes out gloopy, give it 5 more minutes.
- Make the drizzle. While the cake cools, squeeze the juice from one and a half lemons into a cup. Stir in 85g of sugar. Don't melt the sugar. Leave it grainy.
- Poke. Take the cake out of the oven but leave it in the tin. While it's still warm, poke holes all over the top with a fork or a skewer. Lots of holes.
- Pour. Spoon the lemon and sugar mix slowly over the top. The juice sinks in. The sugar stays on the surface and goes crunchy as it cools.
- Wait. Let it cool all the way down before lifting it out of the tin. This is the hardest bit.
How long it keeps
Three or four days in a tin with a lid on. You can also freeze it for a month. I never wait that long though.
That's all. Try it.
Recipe based on the BBC Good Food classic lemon drizzle cake. I just did it in my own words.
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