Nigella Lawson's Perfect Every Time Lemon Drizzle Cake

I'm starting to realise just how much I love Nigella Lawson's cooking.....I've posted several of her recipes on here now and this cake recipe from How To Be A Domestic Goddess proves she really is the queen of desserts! This lemon drizzle cake was my first venture into proper baking this time last year and having made a dozen of these cakes in the last twelve months, I have to say, it really does work every time. It's an almost foolproof cake to make but the end result would never give that away. It's proved popular with everyone that I've offered a piece and been happily received as a slightly different (but yummy) birthday/Christmas gift by my friends and family. If you love lemons and icing, you will love this cake.

Ingredients

For the Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake

125g unsalted butter

175g caster sugar

2 large eggs

Zest of 1 lemon

175g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoons milk

23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin buttered and lined

For the Syrup

Juice of 1 and a half lemons

100g icing sugar

For the Glaze

Juice of half a lemon

150g icing sugar

Method

To Make The Cake:

Preheat your oven to 180°C/356°F/Gas Mark 4. Butter and line your loaf tin well.

Cream together the butter and sugar and add the eggs and lemon zest, beating them in well. Gently fold in the flour and salt, mixing thoroughly and then add the milk. Spoon the batter into your prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester (I tend to use a wooden kebab stick as a cake tester) comes out clean.

For the Syrup:

Put the lemon juice and icing sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. As soon as the cake is out of the oven, puncture all over with a skewer and pour over the syrup. Leave the cake to cool completely before removing the cake from the tin.

For the Glaze:

Combine the lemon juice and icing sugar until smooth and white, add a little more icing sugar if needed. Make sure your cake is completely cool before drizzling with the glaze.

Please note all photographs used in this blog entry are actual pictures of my cooking, not file photos.