Delicious Lemon Drizzle Cake
When the weather is lovely and the sun is shining, there is nothing like a delicious lemon drizzle cake to enjoy with a cup of tea. If you have never made a lemon drizzle cake before and you are stuck for cake decorating ideas, you will be surprised to see how easy it is to create a minimalist masterpiece. We can take you through the stages to make a beautiful lemon drizzle cake topped with crisp, tangy white icing and crystallised lemon pieces. It is worth getting started on the crystallised lemon in advance, even the day before since it is useful for the slices to dry off slightly so they won't try to dissolve your beautiful white icing.
Equipment:
A chopping board
Saucepan
Palette knife
Ingredients:
4 lemons
200ml water
Caster sugar-filled up to the same level of the Cooks Measure as the water
200g butter softened
300g icing sugar (for the buttercream)
175 icing sugar (for the glaze)
Method :
- Pour the water and sugar into the saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved, turn the flame down to its lowest setting. Cut three of the lemons into 3-4mm thick slices and drop into the saucepan, allowing the slices to bubble away for ten minutes.
- Turn off the heat and fish out the slices, laying them to dry on a plate. (Cover the slices with cling film and refrigerate if you are intending to use them the following day.) Keep the syrupy, lemony liquid and set aside for later
- Cut the cake in half, horizontally, with a cake leveller so that each half is roughly equal in height. Spoon the reserved lemon liquid from the saucepan over the cut surface of both halves of the cake leaving about 1½ tablespoons for the buttercream icing.
- Cream the butter and icing sugar together until pale and fluffy and beat in the reserved lemon syrup. Spread the buttercream icing thickly over the lower half of the cake and place the upper half on top, domed side uppermost.
- Juice the fourth lemon and mix in roughly 175g icing, or enough to make a white, thick (but still runny) glaze.
- At this point, it's a good idea to lift the cake onto a cake stand, as things will start to get messy! Spoon the icing over the top of the cake in the centre and allow it to course it's way over the top and sides of the cake.
- Allow the glaze to form a crust (it takes about 45 minutes to an hour) and then arrange the lemon slices in a pattern over the top of the cake.
- Serve and enjoy the delicious results.