When it comes to cakes there are tonnes of flavour options to choose from, but lemon drizzle is certainly among the most popular.
The classic cake is the perfect blend of sharp and sweet, and is a firm favourite of baking legend Mary Berry. The former Great British Bake Off judge’s lemon drizzle traybake has been a hit since the 1960s and she says it’s her most asked about recipe. Thankfully, the recipe is very easy to follow and if you get the mixing of one ingredient right, your cake will be wonderfully fluffy and light when you bite into it.
Start by chopping up around one tablespoon of lemon verbena leaves which will help enhance the lemon flavour of the cake, but Mary says it’s not essential to add this if you can’t get hold of any as “the recipe will still work without it”.
Once chopped, add the lemon verbena leaves to a mixing bowl along with four eggs, 225g of caster sugar and 225g of baking spread.
Now the key here is to ensure that your baking spread is soft before you add it to the mixture. Ideally, it should be at room temperature and it needs to be thoroughly creamed with the sugar.
By using ingredients at room temperature, it allows them to emulsify and incorporate air more easily, ultimately resulting in a lighter and fluffier cake. The creaming of the butter and sugar is what will create the fluffy texture, so make sure you do this thoroughly as it’s crucial for a light tasting cake.
Mary says if you opt to use butter instead of a baking spread, then it’s very important to soften it at room temperature before you add it. Explaining the process in a YouTube video, she says: “If you like to use butter, it must be really soft.”
Then add 275g of self-raising flour, two teaspoons of baking powder and four tablespoons of milk, before grating the zest of two lemons. Once all of the ingredients have been added to the mixing bowl, beat them together using an electric whisk or mixer for about one minute until the mixture turns “beautifully smooth”.
Mary adds: “That is beaten to perfection. That amount of mixture fills a tray bake tin 23 by 30 centimeters. You grease the tin really well and then you line it with non-stick paper. It needs to go in the oven at 160C for about 35 or 40 minutes.”
As the cake bakes you then need to turn your attention to making the lemon drizzle topping. To do this, simply squeeze the juice of two lemons into a bowl and add 175g of granulated sugar. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes once baked before brushing it with your lemon drizzle topping.
Mary says: “Make sure you get it all to the edges and then it will be really delicious. Once the topping has completely soaked in, it’s ready to slice.
“Now, I cannot resist. That is as light as a feather. You can just see the flecks of lemon verbena. That is sheer bliss. When I’ve finished that, I’m quite sure I’d be ready for another slice.”
