When life gives you lemons, you could of course make lemonade, but why not try making  a lemon drizzle cake instead? 

Although I don’t really have a sweet tooth, I gladly make an exception for this sticky, lemony delight. Over the past few years, it has somehow become my default cake – probably because it’s the only kind my boyfriend ever asks for – giving me plenty of time to adjust and perfect the recipe.  So, to celebrate his birthday last Friday, I made two cakes.  One for us and one to hand out to friends and family. After all, you only turn 25 once in your life.

Ingredients (for 1 cake):

for the cake

225 g self-raising flour

225 g sugar

225 g butter, softened

5 eggs

zest of 2 lemons

for the drizzle

juice of 2 lemons

50 g sugar

for the icing

icing sugar

lemon juice from a bottle

• heat the oven to 160 degrees celcius
• mix the sugar with the softened butter in a big bowl until creamy and pale
• one by one add the eggs
• add the flour (pour it through a sieve to avoid lumps) and the lemon zest and gently fold in the flour. Add a pinch of salt to lift the flavours.
• Gently spoon the mixture in to a greased cake or loaf tin.
• bake for around 50 minutes*, if a fork comes out clean, the cake is done.
• while the cake is still hot, stab it to death with a fork (this is a great anger management solution if you happen to need one) and pour the lemon drizzle mixture all over.
• When the cake has cooled down entirely, make some thick, opaque icing with powdered sugar and lemon juice from a bottle (especially if, like mine, it contains some added lemon oil, which will make the flavour even more intense, otherwise you can always use fresh lemon juice) and drizzle across the top of the cake.

*baking anything in my oven is a bit of a gamble, so I personally bake the cake for 15 minutes on 225 degrees, then turn down the heat to 160 and bake for another 40 minutes. If you have a normally functioning often, 50 minutes at 160 degrees should give you good results though.