I never need a reason to make a lemon cake but if you have any home-made lemon curd (of course you do!) with its eat-by date approaching, this is a good way of using it up. A good-quality bought curd will work just as well.
I’d love to say it’s my own recipe but it comes almost in its entirety from the Guardian’s Felicity Cloake. I don’t know her but I’d love to be one of her testers: so many times I’ve made a dish only to find Ms Cloake has got there first and probably done it better.
To assuage my conscience I’ve tweaked a couple of things, including adding lemon curd to the mix and simplifying the method. This is a light, lemony cake with a deliciously crunchy topping and so easy a child could make it.
Lemon Curd Drizzle Cake
Ingredients:
100g self-raising flour
75g ground almonds
175g caster sugar
175g softened butter
3 eggs
2 tbsp lemon curd
The zest of 1 unwaxed lemon (or scrub it under a hot tap)
1 tbsp lemon juice
For the drizzle:
100g demerara sugar
The zest of 1 unwaxed lemon and the juice of 2
Method:
Line and grease a 2lb loaf tin and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer to a smooth batter. Add a tablespoon or so of lemon juice if it’s too thick – you’re looking for a dropping consistency.
Spoon into the loaf tin, smooth the surface and give the tin a sharp rap on your work surface to settle the batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
While the cake is still warm, poke holes all over it with your toothpick and briefly mix together the demerara sugar and lemon zest and juice. Pour it over the cake, allowing the first lot to be absorbed before adding the next. Cool in the tin before removing and cutting into slices.
Luscious lemon cake Linda, I’ve been contemplating making curd, your recipe is the inducement I need
Thank you, Sandra. It’d be interesting to try it with a grapefruit curd as well … I may have to revisit it soon!
That’s an interesting addition, lemon curd – I’ll try it, if I can persuade myself to leave enough curd to do so. I love Felicity Cloake’s researches to find the definitive versions of well-loved recipes. If I can’t be one of her testers, I’ll settle for being one of her bottle-washers – or gophers.
Curiously, the curd seems to lighten the mix rather than the opposite. Perhaps we should volunteer our services to Ms Cloake, although I’m guessing that on recipe testing days, a disorderly queue forms.
The overhead shot of the loaf in the tin is beautiful.
Thank you, Conor. I’m trying (very, some would say).
Oh, to have some lemon curd about to go off!
Haha, you could always make some specially!
This sounds magnificent! Lemon is one of my favorite summertime flavors!
Thanks, Cindy. It certainly vanished in record time. We’ve got the builders in at the moment!
Looks perfectly moist! I know this would be a hit at cookouts, but I’m not sure I’d want to share!
Thank you! The answer of course is to make two … 🙂
Looks delicious! 🙂
Thank you, Katie, and thanks for taking the time to comment. Lx