Lemon drizzle cake

By Birgitta

Here I've solved the riddle of how to use lots of lemon juice without the cake sinking or turning heavy, resulting in a much more tangy and suitably gorgeous slice. The icing is spooned on while the cake is hot, and this helps it turn into that beautiful, crisp lemon glaze as it cools.

Dan Lepard

Ingredients

• 50 g unsalted butter, melted
• 50 ml sunflower oil
• Finely grated zest 2 lemons
• 150 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 50 g ground almonds
• 150 g plain flour
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 21/2 tsp baking powder
• 90 ml lemon juice
• 75 g icing sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Line a small, 17cm-long loaf tin, or similar, with nonstick baking paper, and preheat the oven to 180C (fan-assisted 160C)/350F/gas mark 4. Melt the butter in a pan, then pour into a mixing bowl along with the oil. Add the lemon zest, sugar and eggs, whisk for a minute until smooth and slightly bubbly, then stir in the almonds. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornflour and baking powder, then sift half of this into the butter/egg bowl. Beat in 75ml of the lemon juice, then sift in the remaining flour mixture and beat until smooth.

Spoon the cake mixture into the loaf tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Remove and leave to cool for five minutes. Beat the remaining 15ml of lemon juice with the icing sugar, and spread this mix over the top of the cake while it's still in the tin. Leave until barely warm before serving.