Lemon drizzle loaf

I made this for the first time to sell during the half marathon and it was rather yummy.  I made a double quantity and the Kenwood Chef was a bit overwhelmed with the volume of the mix so, if you’re planning to do the same, you have been warned.

You’ll need a loaf tin, roughly 23cm by 13cm and the deeper the better.  Grease this and dust well with flour, shaking off any excess.  You need to do this properly because when you’ve poured over the drizzle and allowed it to cool then it can be tricky to get out of the tin.

Ingredients

• 320g sugar (caster or granulated)
• 3 eggs
• grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons (or more if you want and be careful not to grate the bitter white pith)
• 250g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 250ml milk (skimmed, semi-skimmed or full fat)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (always buy extract not essence)
• 200g unsalted butter, melted

Lemon Syrup

• freshly squeezed juice and zest of one lemon
• 50g sugar (caster or granulated)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170°C or 140°C for a fan oven (aren’t all ovens fan ovens these days?)
• Put sugar, eggs and lemon zest in a bowl and beat until well mixed.
• Add flour (sifted if you can be bothered), baking powder and salt to a separate bowl. And combine milk and vanilla in yet another bowl. (This recipe creates a fair bit of washing up.)
• Add a third of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and beat well.  Add a third of the milk mixture and beat well. 
• Do the flour followed by milk thing again, twice.
• Beat very well until everything is light and fluffy.
• Add melted butter and beat until well incorporated.
• Pour into prepared loaf tin and then bake for about 1 1/4  hours or until golden brown and it passes the skewer test (when a skewer is inserted into the centre of the cake and removed it remains clean.)

Lemon syrup

• While the cake is baking put lemon zest, juice, sugar and 100ml water in a small saucepan.  Bring to boil over a low heat.  Raise heat and boil until it has reduced by half or until it is a thin syrup.
• Put a cooling rack over a shallow baking tray and when the cake is cooked put it on the cooling rack.  Use the skewer to make lots of holes in the top of the loaf and then carefully pour syrup over the loaf.  The syrup is likely to spill into the baking tray and then you can tip what’s in the baking tray back over the loaf.  This process can get very messy and sticky.
• When loaf has cooled completely you can remove it from the tin.  I put the tin in a freezer bag and then turn the loaf out.  This also handily prepares the loaf for the freezer.  This cake freezes very well.  Take out of the freezer the night before you need it.