My brother-in-law is a sweet guy – like a little brother to me and always an easy target for experimental baking!

He’s been super helpful with my move, sorting out a bodged telephone line for me and wasn’t backwards in coming forwards asking for a lemon drizzle cake in payment.

Think he is just about out of his cake induced diabetic coma……not sure he shared much of it and this recipe does produce a fairly sizeable cake!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to take a photo before it got devoured!  My mother, who doesn’t bake, watched me making this with fascination and commented that she thought even she could manage making this kind of cake.

So here it is, my lemon drizzle cake – super easy and really good!

I used a stand mixer to make this but an electric whisk should do the job.

Ingredients

180g caster sugar

3 large eggs

1 tspn vanilla essence

90g soft butter

90g margarine

zest of 2 lemons

1 tblspn baking powder

180g sifted self-raising flour

125g sugar

juice of 2 lemons

1.   Whisk the eggs until creamy and then add in the sugar and continue to whisk until doubled in volume.

2.   Add in the vanilla essence and lemon zest with a tablespoon of the flour and continue to whisk adding in the butter and margarine gradually until all is combined smoothly.

3.   Add in the rest of the flour and the baking powder and whisk until the mixture just comes together. Try not to over beat it or it will toughen.

4.   Pour the mixture into a lined and greased cake tin.

5.   Bake at 160C for about an hour when a skewer should come out clean.

6.   Whilst the cake is baking, heat the sugar and lemon juice together, bringing the syrup to a rolling boil.

7.   Once the cake has baked, pour the syrup through a tea strainer to remove any pips and pith, over the top of the still hot cake and leave to soak.

8.   Serve once it has cooled down a little bit……..but not completely!