Lemon drizzle cake

This has been a favourite on the blog for years, so I absolutely had to include it in my first-ever recipe book. It’s incredibly soft thanks to the drizzle, packed with lemon flavour and topped with a zesty, lemon-infused icing. My secret ingredient is ground almonds – it makes the cake so lovely and moist.

SERVES 12 PREP 30 mins COOK 45 50 mins EASY V 175g butter, softened, plus extra for

the tin

175g caster sugar

2 lemons, zested

3 medium eggs

100g gluten-free self-raising lour 75g ground almonds

For the drizzle

100g caster sugar

1 lemon, zested, 2 juiced (use the

zested lemons, above)

For the icing

120g icing sugar

1 lemon, zested and 2 juiced (use the

remaining zested lemon, above)

1

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 3. Lightly butter a 900g loaf tin and line with baking parchment.

2 Beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and pale. Add the lemon zest and beat again until light and flu y. Crack in the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each until well combined. 3 Sift in the flour and fold it in, then fold in the ground almonds. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 mins until golden. If it’s browning too quickly, cover the tin with foil.

4 While the cake is baking, make the drizzle. Put the sugar, lemon zest and juice in a bowl and mix until well combined. Remove the cake from the oven – it’s cooked when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Use the skewer to poke lots of holes all over the top of the cake, while it’s still hot, then slowly pour over all of the drizzle. Leave to cool briefly in the tin, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to cool completely. 5 For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl until you have a smooth, slightly thick, yet still pourable consistency. Once the cake has fully cooled, drizzle the icing all over the top of the cake and sprinkle with lemon zest.

GOOD TO KNOW gluten free

PER SERVING 351 kcals • fat 17g • saturates 9g • carbs 45g • sugars 38g • ibre none • protein 4g • salt 0.4g

Recipes extracted from How to Make Anything Gluten Free by Becky Excell (£20, Quadrille). Photographs © Hannah Hughes. (Please note: recipes are supplied by the publisher and not retested by us.)