Great British Bake Off: Cake Week

Lemon drizzle cake recipe

The Great British Bake Off returns to our screens on 24 August and this year Pastry Chef Martyn Edmonds will be sharing his tips and recipes throughout the series, so you can create your own showstopping bakes at home.

As always, Cake Week is first up, and in this episode the bakers will be making drizzle cakes for the Signature Challenge. Martyn’s gone with a classic lemon drizzle cake – so get baking at home and share your photos with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Ingredients

For the cake
2 1/2 medium eggs
200g sugar
100ml cream
190g flour
1/2tsp baking powder
65g melted butter
2 lemons, zest only

For the lemon syrup
2 lemons, juice only
100g caster sugar

For the lemon icing
1 lemon, juice only
200g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat an oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 8 inch circular cake tin.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the cream and mix well.
3. Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder.
4. Finally, add the melted butter and lemon zest.
5. Once fully combined, pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown.
6. Prepare the lemon syrup by gradually mixing the lemon juice with the caster sugar in a pan over a low heat.
7. While the cake is still warm, use a skewer or cocktail stick and make lots of holes. Then brush the top with the lemon syrup – this will allow the syrup to be evenly distributed throughout the cake.
8. Leave to cool completely and then carefully remove from the tin.
9. Make the lemon icing by gradually mixing the lemon juice with the icing sugar. The spread over the top of the cake.
10. Try adding decorations such as candied lemon peel or slices of dehydrated lemon.

Find out more about our summer desserts and afternoon tea at The Royal York Hotel.