Lemon French teatime loaf

It's sticky, its sweet and it's tangy. The freshness of this is enough to wake anybody up, no matter how many trebles they managed to keep down the night before.  Enjoy a slice with a cup of tea and you'll be feeling fresh and ready to face the day. (well...Maybe...).  This is my Nanny Audrey's favourite thing in the world, something I am now forced to bake every time I visit her.  It's so easy to rustle up and is a perfect replacement to a boring digestive biscuit.  Most recipes online will instruct you to use 1 or 2 lemons. I use 5 or 6.

Ingredients

 200g soft butter

200g self-raising flour

200g caster sugar for the cake

100g caster sugar for the syrup

3 eggs

5 or 6 lemons

100g icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.  Beat in the eggs, then sift in the flour.  Grate the zest of the lemons, adding most to the cake mix, leaving about a fifth for the topping.  Pour into a greased loaf tin and which in the oven. Easy.


Whilst your loaf is cooking juice ALL BUT ONE of the lemons into a small jug and mix in the caster sugar until it forms a sweet sticky syrup.  Taste it - if it tastes too harsh and acidic, add more sugar until it has a really intense sweet tangy flavour.


With the remaining lemon, make a quick, runny icing, mixing the juice with the icing sugar.


Remove the loaf when it is risen and golden (usually after 15-20 minutes), insert a skewer and if it comes out clean, it is done, if not, put it in for a little longer.  Set aside to cool.


When luke warm, upturn the tin and place the loaf on a plate.  Get a skewer and cover it in deep holes, all over (top and bottom), as many as you can get away with without completely massacring it. Upturn the cake (remember you've put holes on this side too), and pour half of the syrup very slowly and watch it all soak up with a sponge.  It will seem a lot but it should all be absorbed pretty easily.  Turn it back up and do the same to the top. 


With a spoon, drizzle the icing over the top and use the left over lemon zest and sprinkle on top.


Voila.


H x


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Here's another one I made at Easter (hence obligatory Easter chick..)

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