Anyone for some lemon cake?

Apparently, someone in my circle of London friends always is.
At least that’s what I’ll assume as this lemon cake seems to be one of my most popular cakes here and whenever I make it, people compliment me for it.

To be honest, I don’t quite actually quite know why, as it is just a basic lemon cake, which isn’t very exciting really but then again, I guess, it’s the simplicity of it that everyone likes: the light lemon flavor and the crunchy sugar topping.

What I like most about it, is that the making is very simple too, which is always a plus…

For the cake you will need:

• 275g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 225g unsalted butter or margarine
• 225g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 tbsp milk
• grated rind of 2 lemons
• pinch of salt

For the cake topping you’ll need:

• 175g sugar, if you want it crunchy go for granulated sugar
• juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 and prepare a deep baking tin (mine is about 20 x 30 cm and the type that’s great for pasta bakes or tiramisu) by brushing it lightly with oil and lining it with baking paper.

Mix the flour and baking powder in one bowl. In another one, mix the butter/margarine, eggs and sugar, as well as the pinch of salt and lemon rind with an electric whisk until combined. Then add the baking powder enriched flour and milk and whisk again until the dough is smooth, which won’t take long at all (2-3 mins).

Pour the dough in your tin and level it with a spatula, then bake it for 40 – 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Cool the cake down in the tin, on a wire rack, but while it is still a little warm, use a toothpick to prick a few holes in the cake. Mix the sugar into the lemon juice and slowly drizzle it over the cake, letting some of it getting soaked up, so that it will infuse the cake with the lemony syrup but the crunchy sugar will stay on top.

Enjoy when it’s completely cooled down and the topping has set.