Macmillan Coffee Morning: Cakes and Bakes

A while back, I was asked by a friend to make some cakes for a bake sale her Grandma was holding as part of Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning. This scared me as the circumstances in which I normally make cakes never call for them to be particularly outstanding...

After much deliberation, I settled on a Coffee and Walnut cake, a Madeira and some Lemon Biscuits, all of which I have made before without much difficulty.

This is a picture from the first time I attempted Lemon Biscuits. These were left circular and un-iced as my family tend to prefer bakes without icing. As the biscuits for the bake sale needed to be extra special, I used a circular star type cutter and decorated them with lemon icing.

In order for the icing to remain on the biscuit and not dribble over the sides, I piped icing around the edges and allowed it to dry completely before adding the rest of the icing.

I was seriously impressed that I'd come up with this idea, it worked spectacularly. I finished them off with some citrus sprinkles by Dr. Oetker.

Next, I made a Madeira Cake. I've made this cake hundreds of times without any problems so it was really just typical that this turned out poorly when it really mattered! As I have just purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible, I decided to follow the Madeira recipe in it.

My regular recipe is from the original GBBO book and I felt this would also be a great bake. The recipe told me to throw everything into the bowl and mix, which I was uneasy with. The cake came out unrisen and a bit flat which I believe was due to the lack of method behind the recipe.

I therefore had to smother the cake in a lemon icing in order for it to look less rubbish. On the day, my Granddad bought the cake so disaster averted!!

And, for my 'Show Stopper'...

This cake was received in the best way I could have possibly imagined it to have been, I was so proud! Having made this cake previously, I knew that the sponges came out thin in the tins I was planning to make them in and therefore doubled the mixture. The cake was, quite frankly, colossal in size, and apparently was selling for £1 a slice!

Not necessarily a full house of successful bakes but it was all in aid of a charity very very close to my heart. I only hope the efforts of myself and my fellow bakers have helped Macmillan in all of the amazing work they do!

Coffee and Walnut cake from The Great British Book of Baking, Madeira Cake from Mary Berry's Baking Bible and Lemon Biscuits from Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets

Guest Blogger: Baking Bread with Brother

There's something that has always fascinated me about bread - the fact that a few simple ingredients can be combined together to become one of the tastiest, most comforting and popular foods in the world is in no small part why bread is a true food icon.

Unfortunately, bread that you buy is often far from the ideal loaf. Full of preservatives, often flavourless and stodgy - it’s a wonder why people don’t just bake their own.

As a direct result of the success of Ray's Sundried Tomato Bread from a few weeks ago, I have been inspired to get my hands dirty and bake some of my own bread - as such, Ray asked me to write this guest blog spot to chart my success.

So today I am making two loaves - a classic white bread loaf, and a second sundried tomato loaf. Unlike the last sundried tomato loaf however, which was baked according to a modified recipe for sundried tomato bread rolls from the Great British Book of Baking - this time I would be using a classic white loaf recipe from the BBC Good Food website, and into one of the sets of ingredients be adding a good handful of chopped sundried tomatoes. Now, it is fair to say that despite having been making bread for similar amounts of time, my sister is the better baker out of the two of us. It wasn’t until after following through with this risky bread baking method that I learnt adding extra ingredients to a standard bread recipe can drastically alter the consistency, texture and composition of your final loaf, unless preventative measures are taken. However, as luck would have it, there were no bread-based culinary disasters to report.

Adding extra ingredients may be tasty, but can also ruin your loaf if you aren't careful!

 I'm sure I am not the only one who finds baking bread a great stress reliever - not only is kneading a great way to vent some steam, but at the end of the day you have a delicious, warm, freshly baked loaf to look forward to. 

However, with much excitement on my behalf, and under strict instructions not to break it, Ray allowed me to use her beloved Kitchenaid to mix and knead the dough for our two loaves. While using a Kitchenaid with the bread dough attachment may not be as effective at stress relief as kneading by hand, it is certainly quicker, less tiring and generally more fun - especially when baking two separate loaves!

After around ten minutes at "Speed setting two! Nothing more, nothing less!" the bread dough was smooth and elastic, the equivalent of a good twenty minutes or more of hand kneading.

Smooth and elastic, in only half the time!

 From this point on, I was back in classic bread making territory - place the well kneaded bread dough into an oiled container and cover. Place in a warm area (a difficult thing to find in our house!), and allow the dough to double in size - usually around an hour's time.

Once your mixture has grown, it’s time to 'knock back' the dough - essentially, this process undoes all the work that the yeast has done in the last hour, causing the dough to grow. To knock back the bread, lightly flour a clean and dry surface, and begin pushing out the pockets of air that have grown within the dough. While you may feel the last hour of waiting has gone to waste, it is a vital process in getting that perfect loaf texture! Be sure to get all of the air pockets out, otherwise when your bread bakes you will have large holes within the body of bread itself - not so good when you want to slice your loaf and put butter on it!

Looking good so far.

 Once you are satisfied your dough is knocked-back enough, unfortunately it is time to play the waiting game again. Once you have grabbed your loaf tins, and have greased them, shape the dough into rugby balls and place it into your tins. Stick on your oven, but don’t be too hasty to put the bread in just yet - it needs to prove first. To me this is the worst part about making bread - you are so close to that delicious, warm smell of freshly baked bread - and yet you have to hide your bread away for another half an hour before you can even think about putting it in the oven, Just as well really, as our oven takes a life-time to warm up!

Not long to go now, but it feels like an age!

 Once the bread has proved for the final time, after around thirty minutes - it is finally time to bake! This is, without doubt the best part, other than the eating of your loaf of course! The smell fills the house, and I have to admit, a certain feeling of pride is not uncommon at this point - even if you bake bread every single day, each loaf is always a special thing!

What you have been waiting for!

 When your loaf is cooked allow it to cool and enjoy, you deserve it!

Jonny

Sundried Tomato Loaf

One of my favourite things to bake is bread. I even used to enjoy the exhausting task of kneading before I bought my mixer. When my parents joined up with Slimming World and my brother moved out for university, baking bread became pointless as I was the only one who ate it. So, as sad as it may seem, I was overjoyed when my mum suggested I made some bread!

As my parents had brought a bag of sun dried tomatoes home with them from Nice, and I had a recipe for something similar in one of my books, this seemed a natural decision. Unfortunately, I hate sun dried tomatoes and, despite waiting forever to be able to bake bread, everyone but me got to eat it!

Apologies to those who have noticed that these pictures were not taken in my kitchen, it was a freezing cold day in Newcastle and somebody had left the back door open which made the kitchen almost arctic like and most certainly not 'room temperature'. As you can see, my living room provided a perfect breeding ground for the yeast!

The original recipe for this was from The Great British Book of Baking (surprise, surprise) and was for individual Thyme and Sun dried Tomato Rolls. I had no thyme, however, and I feel loaves are always best as there's more to share around!

As a result, this loaf was very small but it cooked in the same time as the rolls would have done. I've tasted the bits without tomatoes and it's very nice!!


Ingredients:

350g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 x 7g sachet of easy blend/easy bake dried yeast
4 tablespoons olive oil- I used vegetable as I had none and it made no difference
200ml lukewarm water
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped
6 sun dried tomato halves, chopped and drained of oil- I used 6 full tomatoes as I wasn't using thyme

Method:

-Grease a small loaf tray- if making buns, grease a large baking tray

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a food mixer

-Add the oil and work in enough lukewarm water to make a soft but sticky dough

-Knead until pliable and smooth- this could take around 10 minutes by hand and 5 in a stand mixer. Add the thyme and sundried tomatoes and knead until combined, then cover with cling film until doubled in size- according to the book this should take around an hour at room temperature

-Punch down the dough once risen and turn onto a floured surface. Knead for a few seconds and shape into a rugby ball- if making buns, separate into 9 pieces

-Cover the tray with cling film or a dry towel and leave to double in size- around twenty minutes

-Heat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Once risen, cook the dough for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown- this time works for the loaf and the buns

-Leave to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Jumbles

I hate to bore but I have quite a lot to say about these biscuits; some good, some bad and some completely my fault...

I originally planned on putting pecans and milk chocolate in these but the prices of pecans in my local supermarket were completely unjustifiable. For some reason, I cannot abide the taste of cranberry juice and was therefore dubious about white chocolate and cranberry jumbles, which were a suggestion by my brother. I had no reason to worry though as the cranberries remained juicy despite being cooked within an inch of their life and tasted nothing like cranberry juice!

I loved this recipe as, after melting the butter, everything was literally 'jumbled' together in the pan and scooped onto baking trays. This also gave me the opportunity to use the beast of a saucepan that my brother brought home from uni, it's pretty impressive! I'm yet to fathom why he spent £40 on a pan with no lid...

I did have an issue with this, however, as the chocolate began to melt before it entered the oven and, whether this is a coincident or not, there were no lumps of chocolate in the biscuits and therefore nothing to prove that they had any chocolate in them at all...

As you can see, half of my jumbles are on a tray and half on a baking sheet. Having bought a silicone baking sheet a few months back, this was the first opportunity I had to use it. Unless I'm missing something and using it wrong, this is a rubbish invention. The whole oven rack had to come out, to lay the tray on, spoon the biscuits on and put the rack back in the oven, which resulted in a loss of heat.

Although the recipe stated that the baking trays must be greased, my silicone mat was 'non stick' and I took the plunge to put them in without greasing. As you can see, those on the left from the mat are not cooked underneath and those on the right which had sufficient greasing are perfectly crisp. This made little difference but I'm not bringing myself to chuck the useless thing out!

Ingredients:

(adapted from The Great British Book of Baking)

125g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

50g light muscovado sugar- I used light demerara

1 medium egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Flavourings: up to 100g of each- I did 55g white chocolate and 45g cranberries

2 baking trays well greased with butter

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5

-In a pan large enough to hold the mixture, melt the butter gently then remove from the heat and stir in both sugars

-Beat the vanilla and egg in a separate bowl and then stir into the butter and sugar

-Sift in the flour and baking powder, once combined, add your choice of flavourings

-Scoop the mixture well apart on greased baking trays- they really spread!

-Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden and just firm

-Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes then allow to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Death by Chocolate

Frankly, I think Death by Chocolate is by far the best way to go, who wouldn't think that?!

As you can see, this cake is not for the faint hearted! As this recipe contains no flour, it takes on the role of one of those wonderful gooey in the middle sort of desserts, probably more suited to being warmed up with custard or cream.

As per usual, the recipe comes from The Great British Book of Baking and is so well written and easy to explain. The recipe also banishes cocoa powder and calls for 'good quality' dark chocolate. I felt it necessary not to rebel against such instructions, how could I insult such a beauty in that way?! As a result, the cake was incredibly rich and I wonder if the icing took it too far over the edge- I can't believe I just typed such an audacious sentence! I guess the occasion could determine such a decision in terms of icing/no icing.

I also felt it necessary to document the whole process step by step. This was for two reasons, the first being that I had never made a cake in this way, and I was amazed. Secondly, I felt the pictures accompanied the instructions perfectly.

These pictures show the mixture before the chocolate is added, puffed up and around 5 times the original volume and also once the chocolate was folded in and it had sunk somewhat.

Despite the cake's promising appearance straight from the oven, my cake sunk much to my disappointment! This was stated in the recipe though so this wasn't too bad. I then, against the instructions, covered the top of the cake in frosting, instead of turning it bottom up which caused the icing to be thicker towards the middle and therefore only possible to eat in minuscule slices!

Unfortunately, this cake wasn't for me but I was sent a doggy bag from my Grandad and it was phenomenal!

Ingredients:

For the cake:
300g good quality dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter, diced
5 medium eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g caster sugar

For the icing:
200g good quality dark chocolate
100ml double cream

A 22cm springclip tin, greased with butter and the base lined with greaseproof paper


Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas4
Break up the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl with the butter. Set over a pan of steaming hot but not boiling water and leave to melt, stirring frequently. Don't let the base of the bowl touch the surface of the water or the chocolate may become to hot and seize up. Once it has melted, remove from the pan and leave to cool
Meanwhile, break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, add the vanilla and whisk for a few seconds just to break the eggs up
Add the sugar and whisk on full power until pale, very thick and mousse like and about 5 times the original volume- this should take about 5 minutes. To test if the mixture is ready, lift out the whisk- if a thick, ribbon like trail of mixture falls back into the bowl and is still visible after 5 seconds you can stop whisking
Pour the chocolate mixture on to the egg mousse and very gently, but thoroughly, fold the two together, using a large metal spoon- take your time, ensuring there are no pockets of chocolate at the bottom of the bowl
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until just firm to the touch- the centre should still be slightly moist under the crust as the cake will continue to cook once out of the oven
Stand the tin on a wire cooling rack and run a round bladed knife around the inside to loosen the sponge. Leave until completely cold before removing the tin. The cake will rise to the top of the tin during baking but will sink on cooling
Invert the cake onto a serving plate- it's easier to ice this part
To make the icing, finely chop the chocolate and put it into a large heatproof bowl with the cream
Set over a pan of steaming hot but not boiling water and make sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water. Leave for a minute or so until the chocolate is half melted, then remove from the pan and beat the chocolate well until glossy
Pour the topping evenly over the cake and let it trickle down the sides- if worked too much it will lose it's shine. Leave until firm
Enjoy!

A Multitude of Cakes

Cherry Cake

How awesome is that?!! I would just like to point out here that I have NEVER made cherry cake before, this was my first ever attempt!

Again, I used my British Book of Baking. As with all their recipes, this seemed a tad faffy but, having read all the horror stories of the cherries sinking etc., I followed it word by word and look at how beautiful it is! As I say, it was very faffy, having to sift the flour onto baking parchment (never good when you're back door is open!) and then cleaning the cherries (three times!) and chopping them.

The ground almonds help hugely here, as they provide enough texture to stop the cherries sinking however this won't work unless the cherries are thoroughly rinsed!

I chose to use a loaf tin rather than a cake tin, which didn't really affect it at all however it did reduce the cooking time which I couldn't argue with!

Unfortunately I didn't get to taste this, but my Yaya raved about it!!

Vanilla Sprinkle Sponge

A few weeks ago I had a real craving for the sort of cake I used to get in first school, a moist vanilla sponge with thick icing and lots of sprinkles and custard.

I struggled to find a really good vanilla recipe, and found that this one wasn't really up to scratch as it failed to rise and it burnt very easily (after the first 10 mins!) but it worked. I also ran out of icing sugar so this kind of just failed from the start!

This recipe was from AllRecipes.co.uk but I'm still struggling to find a really good sponge recipe, I wonder if a regular sponge recipe would work? Please help my cake disasters!

Cherry Cake- adapted from The Great British Book of Baking

Ingredients:

200g best quality glace cherries- natural colour if possible

200g self raising flour

a pinch of salt

175g unsalted butter, soft but not runny

175g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, room temp, beaten

50g ground almonds

a 20cm round deep cake tin, greased with butter and lined with greaseproof paper

Method:

-Preheat your oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3- I have a fan oven so usually knock off 20 degrees. Grease and line your tin of choice, I like to use a loaf tin for this cake

-Cut the cherries in half and rinse them under a hot tap (this removes the sticky syrup), leave to dry

-On a piece of greaseproof paper, sift the flour and salt together. Set this aside and continue by beating the sugar and butter until light and creamy

-Add the eggs slowly and beat after each addition to stop the mixture from curdling. Gently fold in the ground almonds

-In a bowl, toss the cherries with a tablespoon of the flour. Sift the remaining flour into the mixture and fold, then add the cherries and mix until combined. You need to add the flour from the cherries in here too

-Spoon the batter into your prepared tin and level evenly. According to the recipe, making a slight hollow in the centre of the cake allows it to rise evenly, this works brilliantly

-Bake for around an hour or until golden and firm to the touch. Once cooked, allow to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Vanilla Sprinkle Sponge- adapted from AllRecipes.co.uk

Upon reviewing this recipe, I feel it may work best as cupcakes but I'll leave this down to you!

Ingredients:

200g sugar

115g butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

200g flour

1 and 3/4 tsp baking powder

120ml milk

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4- again, reduce by 20 degrees for a fan oven

-Grease and flour a tray bake tin or, if making cupcakes, line a bun tin with cupcake cases
-Cream your butter and sugar until creamy, add the eggs one at a time and beat with the vanilla until combined
-Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold well. Add in the milk and continue to beat until smooth
-Spoon the mixture into your tin or cupcake cases
-Bake for 30-40 minutes or for 20 to 25 for cupcakes

Enjoy!



Lemon Drizzle Cake and Cupcakes

Today, I made cakes! Lemon Drizzle cake and cupcakes, nomnom! So, seeing as I've just come back from Zumba, I am writing about my cakes instead of eating them which sucks but hey ho...

Yes, I know it seems like I always make Lemon Drizzle Cake, but this time I tried a new recipe. I've followed the recipe in the Great British Book of Baking a few times now and, although the cake is amazing, I'm still hugely unhappy with the baking time and how it mainly comes out burnt.

But, then came along 'Baked and Delicious', a baking magazine -which is very expensive- with free silicon bakeware and this week happened to have a Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe in it. So I rang my Nana and Grandfather, as I do every week and asked them if they'd like to try it.

The recipe was relatively easy and it was pretty much the same as the old recipe but I hoped that the silicon loaf tin would stop it burning or at least stop it burning so much. I was wrong, almost, it still took an hour to bake and it still had browned edges despite the fact I had covered it in tin foil half way through- see above photograph! I still stand by the fact that every tin should be lined with baking paper, maybe I should take my own advice next time!

I was also really disappointed with how small it was! I felt they weren't going to provide sufficient slices but apparently it was brilliant, I must just be greedy!

Next, I made cupcakes!

These tasted unbelievable. I got the recipe from the UKTV Good Food channel website and, as per, bunged everything in the mixer and let it go. This is what happened when I added the flour, mid conversation with mum and forgot the shield...

When the cupcakes came out, they had all kind of peaked and I figured that the buttercream recipe adjoining the cupcake one that I had made was not going to cover all 12 cakes.

I had followed the recipe down to the letter but it barely covered the bottom of the bowl so definitely suggest doubling it for super iced cakes! Also, don't add too much food colouring, I figured a small drop would get me pale pink icing but it was really really pink...

So, I decided to make butterfly cakes but then thought it might look quite quirky if I just put the lids back on. I actually thought these looked really cool!

Definitely going to adapt these to my Strawberry Yoghurt cupcakes, maybe in my next installment? And, I figured that I could eat these tomorrow and it wouldn't affect my Zumba hot body!


Lemon Drizzle Cake- Take 2!

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
225g self raising flour
2 tbsp milk
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
6 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp golden syrup

For decorating:
1 small lemon, finely sliced (I skipped this out)
50g granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
a little bit of cold water
50g icing sugar, sieved

Method:


-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas4

-If using a silicon loaf pan, dust it with flour once greased

-Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually and then sift in the flour. Fold until combined then add the milk, lemon zest and half of the lemon juice and continue to mix

-Spoon the mixture into the tin and level off

-Bake for around an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean

-Heat the remaining lemon juice and golden syrup in a pan. Once the cake is out of the oven, prick the cake and drizzle the syrup all over it

Enjoy!

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

150g butter, softened
150g sugar
3 eggs, beaten
150g self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk

For the frosting: I suggest you double up here where possible

75g butter, at room temp
150g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a selection of food colouring- be creative!

To decorate:

crystallised flower petals, optional
sprinkles, optional
silver balls, optional
hundreds and thousands, optional
sweets, optional

Method:


-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/160˚C fan oven/gas 4

-Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

-Gradually add the beaten egg, adding the flour to stop it from curdling. Add the vanilla and milk and combine

-Place some muffin cases into a muffin tin and divide the cake batter into them

-Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Take them out of the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack

-In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth, then sift in the icing sugar. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy

-Once cool, decorate your cupcakes as you please!

Enjoy!

Victoria Sponge Cake

After the success of my lemon drizzle, I decided to attempt a traditional Victoria sponge and, after all, what could be so difficult about such an easy cake?! Ha! I thought wrong!

First of all, the recipe called for a whipped cream and jam filling. With hindsight, this seems obvious and completely justifiable having tasted the cake but I immediately presumed I would be using a buttercream filling.

So, after sending my boyfriend out for cream, I attempted the sponge. After following the instructions and finding my mixer could only do half the work, I sighed, folding in the flour with a metal spoon? Isn't that what my mixer was for!? Never the less, I finished the mixture off with the largest wooden spoon I could find and began to pour my cake into the tins. This was where I stumbled across the next problem as I tapped the tins against the work top to even layer the mixture and consequently knocked all form of air out of my potentially wonderful cake.

This didn't make any difference to be honest but as the cake was a gift, I was petrified it had failed and I would probably never know! Luckily my Grandfather, who the gift was for, halved the cake and I came home with some (score!!) to taste test. In terms of presentation, I was mightily impressed (see above photo!) as I delicately sprinkled icing sugar over the top as I've seen Nigella do so many times. For reasons beyond me though, I decided to go against the recipes suggestion of layering cake, cream, jam then cake once more and instead I put jam on one side, cream on the other and squished them together. This just made the jam less visible but made no difference to the taste, I should follow the rules next time!!

However, as I sit here and moan about my somewhat lack of common sense in the cake department, I eat my wonderful, airy, deliciously creamy and jammy Victoria sponge and I know I've succeeded. The cat and my dad agree too.

Victoria Sponge- adapted from The Great British Book of Baking

Ingredients
For the sponge:
175g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, at room temp
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g self raising flour
1 tablespoon of milk, room temp

For the filling:
150ml double or whipping cream, well chilled
4 rounded tablespoons of good jam- raspberry, blackberry, strawberry etc.
Optional: 200g berries- if strawberries they should be hulled and sliced

To finish: icing sugar, for dusting

Method:


- Heat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4 and line two cake tins

-Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla and gradually add to the butter mixture

-Sift the flour into the bowl and add the milk, fold gently with a large metal spoon (I didn't use a 'large metal spoon' and it made no difference whatsoever)

-Divide the batter into your tins and level out. Bake in the oven around twenty minutes or until golden

-Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool

-For the filling, whip the cream until it reaches the soft peaks stage. Cover one sponge with the cream and the other with the jam, sandwich them both together and press carefully

Enjoy!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Having been given The Great British Book of Baking by my brother for Christmas, I have been dreaming about making lemon drizzle cake for days. So, by side stepping revision for a bit, I decided to give the recipe a go. After raiding the cupboards, I only needed to buy some lemons so consequently it was pretty cost efficient but it does use a large amount of all of the ingredients included.

The picture on the page makes the cake look really lemony coloured and looked incredibly moist. However, after baking the cake for 60 minutes (yes, a full 60, that's what the recipe says!) mine came out looking burnt and not exactly as 'moist' as in said picture. The skewer kept coming out with cake mix on it so it continued to burn as it cooked thoroughly. I do believe, however, that had I lined the tin with baking paper, this may have been avoided.

As for the glaze, it's just pure caster sugar and lemon, so the contrast totally blows you away. I only had golden caster sugar though which turned the 'drizzle' slightly brown and not the bog standard frosty white colour that you would expect on a shop bought version. I thought this would spoil the look of the cake but it turned out that you couldn't see the glaze anyway. Despite this, the recipe was by far the easiest I've done in a while, I simply bunged it all into my mixer and away it went. I do suggest, though, that you mix it by hand for a bit first as my mixer sent the flour all over the kitchen, much to my parents annoyance. Or, if you have a Kitchen Aid, use the shield bit!

In the end, the cake tastes amazing, especially as the glaze on top has soaked through but I can't get over the extremely long cooking time which has left a peculiar burnt lemon flavour in my mouth!

Lemon Drizzle Cake- adapted from The Great British Book of Baking

Ingredients

For the Cake:

200g unsalted butter, softened

250g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, beaten and at room temperature

2 medium lemons, unwaxed if possible and finely grated

250g self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

100ml milk, again at room temp

For the topping:

100g caster sugar

juice of 2 medium unwaxed lemons

finely grated zest of 1 medium unwaxed lemon

Method

-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4. Line a 20cm springclip tin or deep round cake tin

-Place the butter, sugar, eggs and zest into a bowl and sieve over the flour and baking powder. Add the milk and mix until smooth and completely combined

-Spoon the batter into the tin and level it out. Bake in the oven for around 50 minutes or until golden brown. A clean cocktail stick should come out clean when put into the centre

-To make the topping, combine the sugar and lemon juice until it creates a runny glaze

-Once the cake is cooked, immediately transfer the tin onto a wire rack and prick the cake all over then spoon the glaze all over

-Leave to cool completely in the tin before serving

.

Enjoy!