I discovered Substack newsletters about a year ago and found some interesting reads. One of the authors is Zoe Francois of Zoe Bakes. She is an engaging writer and has a ton of wonderful recipes, especially if you are a paid subscriber as I am.
Recently she wrote about an Irish version of the popular English treat, the lemon drizzle cake. This cake is simple, with one layer, and very lemon flavored. It has a drizzle of lemon juice and granulated sugar that you drizzle over the top of the cake while it is still warm, soon after you take it out of the oven. This gives the top a bit of sweetness and some crunch...not a lot, but just enough.
I made the cake Sunday and enjoyed it with Sweetie to help celebrate our anniversary. We enhanced it with sliced strawberries from the Hwy 12 farm stand that has the absolute best strawberries. We've been waiting for the fresh local spring strawberries and this cake went soooo well with them.
Part of Zoe's newsletter talked about an upcoming trip to Ireland that she will be taking. She has invited her readers to sign up to go with her and has arranged an extensive tour for food lovers that sounds awesome. Too bad the price is way above my travel budget.
Still, it is of interest to me because the group will be staying at Glin Castle in Glin, Co. Limerick, the town where my maternal grandfather grew up! Sweetie and I have visited the cousins there twice and it would have been fun to see the inside of Glin Castle where the Knight of Glin and his family have resided for hundreds of years. When we were there it was closed to the public.
If you're interested in my first Ireland journey, the first installment can be found HERE, with the post about Glin being HERE. There are a number of interesting posts in between and following if you want to know more about that part of Ireland in western Co. Limerick and some in Co. Clare.
If you want to make the Lemon Drizzle Cake, here is the recipe (with my comments in italics). The only true change that I made was that I took half the granulated sugar and mixed it in a small bowl with all the lemon zest until the sugar was like damp sand. The other half of the sugar was beaten with the butter, then I added the zested sugar and beat it some more. Probably not necessary, but I know that mixing the zest with the sugar helps separate the zest some and the sugar absorbs the lemon oil in the zest. Otherwise the zest tends to clump because of all the inherent lemon oil. Do it that way or just follow the recipe as written and you will have a delicious, moist lemon cake, perfect with a cup of tea. You can pretend you are in Ireland looking at the Shannon River and enjoying all the shades of green.
Lemon Drizzle Cake
The sharp acidity of citrus is the star of this cake. When
it is taken out of the oven, a generous drizzle of granulated sugar and lemon
juice is poured over and absorbed into the warm cake. The granulated sugar
provides a crystallized crunch while still permeating the soft sponge. Slice
this and serve whenever the mood takes. It keeps well for up to three days in
an airtight container and freezes well, too.
Servings: 10
Author: Cherie Denham
Ingredients
- 200 g / 7 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
- 200 g / 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
- Zest of three lemons
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 2 Tbsp. Greek yogurt
- 2 Tbsp. milk
- 200 g / 1 2/3 cups self-raising (self-rising) flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
For the Lemon Drizzle
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 85 g /
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 160℃ / Gas 4. Line an 8-inch (20 cm) deep cake pan (what I used) or 900g / 2 lb loaf tin with baking parchment*.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest in a food processor until light and fluffy. Alternatively, you can use a freestanding mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (what I used) or handheld mixer. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the yogurt and milk, and blend until creamy.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gradually add into the wet ingredients.
4.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, smooth
the surface and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until golden and a skewer
inserted into the center comes out clean.
Lemon Drizzle
1.
Meanwhile, during the last few minutes of
baking, mix together the lemon juice and sugar in a bowl.
Assembly
1. Once the cake is baked, remove it from the oven and prick it all over with a skewer, about every 1/2-inch. Spoon over the drizzle while the cake is still warm. Leave to cool completely in the pan.
Serve at room temperature. Will last for a few days on the counter.
Notes
*If you are using a regular cake pan, you will want to create a parchment sling that comes up and over the sides of the pan to make it easy to lift the cake out of the pan. I used a parchment circle on the bottom. By letting the cake cool completely before I removed it from the pan, it was firm enough to just turn out onto a plate, I removed the parchment, and turned it over so it was right side up.
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