I Heart Cooking Clubs : Lemon Drizzle Cake

This week to celebrate Mother's day the children and I rang my mother in law to invite her for tea and started baking this cake and the '5 minutes chocolate cake' (could you believe my husband said that it was the best cake I have ever prepared ?).

My mother doesn't really care about Mother's day just as much as my mother in law does.

The cake is not so sweet because its sweetness is increased with the lemon syrup and lemon drizzle (which we had to diminish because I ran out of confectioner's sugar).

I actually think it's a very nice cake as I love lemony cakes and the crunch of the poppy seed made it just more delicious.

I got the recipe from 'Cook with Jamie' (all Jamie's books are on my bedsidetable now)

but you can find it here too.

RECIPE

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 115g caster sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• 180g ground almonds
• 30g poppy seeds
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 125g self-raising flour, sifted

for the lemon syrup
• 100g caster sugar
• 90g lemon juice

for the lemon icing
• 225g icing sugar
• zest and juice of 1 lemon

Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.

Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.

To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. When your cake is almost cool, put it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top. If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the ‘drizzle’ effect! Give it a helping hand with a spoon if you want.