Lisa Bakes: Jamie’s Lemon Drizzle Cake

If you’re looking to bake a lemon drizzle cake, you can’t beat Jamie Oliver’s old fashioned tea cake recipe. Even his nan was impressed. The addition of ground almonds and poppy seeds provide this cake with a beautiful texture. My favourite part is pouring the  lemon syrup on the cake while it is still warm so it oozes into every crevice. The result is a super moist and flavoursome cake which your family and friends will just love. And the best news? You can bake it in just four easy steps! Enjoy!

This recipe is from ‘Cook with Jamie’

For the cake- you will need

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 115g caster sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• 180g ground almonds
• 30g poppy seeds
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 125g self-raising flour, sifted

For the lemon syrup – you will need

• 100g caster sugar
• 90g lemon juice

For the lemon icing – you will need

• 225g icing sugar
• zest and juice of 1 lemon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.

3. Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.

4. To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. When your cake is almost cool, put it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top. If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the ‘drizzle’ effect! Give it a helping hand with a spoon if you want.