Luscious Lemony Lemon Drizzle Cake

Sometimes there is a gap that only Lemon Drizzle Cake can fill. It's cake, but it's not too heavy. It's sweet but also a little sour. And it's got fruit in it (well a whole lemon anyway) so you can eat it and still feel virtuous (well, sort of). It's also very easy to make and with a few simple ingredients to hand you can have it all whipped up and out of the oven in no more than 40 minutes. If I have the time, or obviously if you're mixing by hand, I like to follow the stages as set out below. I like that therapeutic side of traditional baking methods. But if you're using a food processor then you can just mix everything up together and it should still turn out well.

120g softened butter
120g caster sugar
2 eggs
120g self-raising flour
1 lemon

Cream the butter and sugar.
Whisk the eggs and add gradually
Grate the zest of the lemon and add along with the juice (keeping a little juice back for the icing)
Add the flour and mix well

Pour the mixture into a greased loaf tin and bake in the centre of a preheated oven (160oC) for approx 25 minutes. Be careful not to over bake as it should be yellow rather than browned but firm to touch and not soft inside.

Mix approx 4 tablespoons of icing sugar with a little lemon juice to make a slightly runny icing and drizzle over the cake while it is still warm. It should soak in to give the cake an extra lemony kick and look pretty too!

I love it's show stopping simplicity. And it's scrumminess.