Sticky Lemon Cake Recipe

This sticky lemon cake is certain to win itself a place amongst your best and favourite recipes.  It requires a little forethought as I find that this a cake best enjoyed on days 2 and 3 (if it lasts that long) but trust me, it is worth the patience.

This is not a heavy cake.  This is a light, lemony and moist cake, perfect as a mid-morning snack, or equally as a guaranteed people-pleaser for afternoon tea. You could even serve it warm with custard as the ideal comfort food or pudding. However you eat your version of this cake

Ingredients For The Cake

4oz butter

40z caster sugar

40z self-raising flour

lemon essence OR  (lemon juice & lemon zest)

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

 

Ingredients For the syrup

8oz sugar

125ml water

lemon essence OR lemon zest and lemon juice

 

Recipe Method

Cream your butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy. Beat your 2 eggs.  Add half the flour to your creamed butter and sugar, then blend in half the beaten egg. At this point, add your lemon essence or lemon juice and lemon zest. Then add the rest of your flour and baking powder before adding the rest of the egg. I like to use a wonder whisk to ensure a nice smooth batter.

Transfer your sticky lemony cake mixture to a greased and floured tin, and bake for 18-21 minutes, until it has gone a lovely golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

When baked, allow 5 mins to cool before releasing it from the cake tin. Then use a skewer to poke holes all the way to the base of the cake. The more holes, the better. Try to ensure an even distribution as this will make the syrup step more effective.

Next we make the syrup. Add the sugar and water to a pan and bring gently to the boil, swilling the water round to encourage the sugar crystals to dissolve. You want to let this mixture bubble away for around 5 mins. Keep an eye on it as if it starts to burn, your syrup will be discoloured and not tasting at its best. Once you turn off the heat, add in your lemon essence OR lemon juice and zest, and decant into a cup to cool.

Now this next step is a labour of love, but it is ultimately what makes this cake shine. At 10 minute intervals, you want to spoon a little bit of your lemon syrup over the cake, allowing it to trickle down in the holes. If you’ve ever made a Christmas cake, it’s like the process of feeding the cake with alcohol. It’ll take about an hour or so to saturate your lemon cake with the syrup. Then all you need to do is wait for 24 hours and dig in. *This may be impossible. Just eat the cake when you want! Let me know what you think if you try it!

You can serve it on its own or with some lemon cream and strawberries, or raspberries. This cake differs from a lemon drizzle cake as there is no crunchiness. This is soft, fluffy, moist, lemon loveliness! I hope you love it as much as I do!

 

 

Ode To My Sticky Lemon Cake

I love your moist deliciousness.

I love your lemony crumb.

I love your sticky indulgence.

You were made to fill my tum!

I’ll serve you up with strawberries

Or simply by yourself.

In fact, dear sticky lemon cake,

I’m keeping you all to myself!

Poem Ode To My Sticky Lemon Cake and recipe Ⓒ Ms Moem