Lemon butter cake /Holiday Baking

I have tried Rachel Allens delectable Orange cake. She’s an awesome chef. I try not to miss her shows on the Travel and Living channel. Although Lemon butter cake is not “Christmassy” I wanted to make use of the lemons a friend gave from their neighbour’s garden. They had aplenty. The cake itself is moist and theres a little zing to them from the lemon zest, and the addition of the lemon drizzle (more calories people!) makes it deliciously lemony.Well, this batch is  for a few friends so the drizzle is forgivable :).Please feel free to omit them if you’re just after the cake. I doubled the recipe for fit all sizes of pans. JC this ones for you.

 

 

Recipe

Butter : 200 gms

Sugar : 180 gm (powdered)

All purpose flour : 200 gm  – I used Self Raising Flour

Lemon Zest : Zest of 2 medium limes 

Eggs : 4

Vanilla extract : 1 tsp

Baking powder : 1.25 tsp (Omit if you’re using Self Raising Flour)

Milk : 4 tbsp (about 60 ml)

 

For the Drizzle

Lemon Juice : 2 tbsp (My lemons were greenish yellow) 

Icing Sugar : 3/4 cup (Refer Notes)

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Grease and dust with flour or Line a 22 cm pan. Keep aside

Cream the butter and Sugar till soft and fluffy and turns to a pale yellow

Add the vanilla extract, beat well

Now add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition

The mixture may seem curdled, keep beating till the eggs are well incorporated

Now, add the lemon zest, mix well and now stop beating the mixture

Add the flour and fold into the mixture gently. DO NOT beat vigorously.

The air that’s trapped into the batter is necessary to keep the cake soft and fluffy

Alternate flour and the milk  and pour into the pan. The batter will be thick

Bake for about 45 mins till the cake pulls away from the sides

 

Once Cool, Take the icing sugar. Sieve it to remove lumps. Now add the lemon juice, one tsp at a time. It should be very thick batter. Drizzle with spoon over the top. Do not over do.

 

NOTES :

Dont overdo the drizzle, if the lemons are sour

I had just a couple of tablespoons of Icing Sugar, so I powdered the sugar to a fine soft mixture and sieved it to get it lump free.