when life hands you lemons....make lemon cake!

light, bright and delicious lemon cake.

this citrusy delight was inspired by a neighbouring lemon hanging over the fence and the desire to bring a bright pop of yellow into an otherwise dull and monochrome winter palette. it's light and luscious, zingy and YELLOW - just the thing for a grey winter day. cosy up with a generous slice and a cup of lady grey and drift away on thoughts of sunshine and summertime.


things you will need:

125g of caster sugar
125 g of softened butter
185g of self-raising flour
1/4 of a cup of milk
a pinch of bi-carb soda (or baking powder)
2 eggs
1 lemon
icing sugar (to dust the cake)

what you will need to do:

firstly remove the rind from the lemon. you can use a vegetable peeler to do this but i prefer a small, sharp knife. try to get the rind only, and not the white skin underneath (as it's quite bitter!). in a small food processor/whizzer, combine the caster sugar and lemon rind. this breaks up the rind and releases the fragrant lemon oils into the sugar, so your cake will be really yellow and lemony. juice the lemon and reserve the juice.

place everything else except the icing sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl and combine with an electric hand mixer or food processor. add a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice ensuring the batter doesn't become too runny. if the batter is still a bit thick, add another teaspoon of lemon juice.

pour into a springform baking tin (mine is about 22cm in diameter, or roughly 9 inches) and bake in a 170C oven for 25 minutes. run a skewer through the cake to ensure it's cooked (it should come out clean). cool the cake then drizzle 1 or 2 teaspoons of leftover lemon juice over and dust with icing sugar.