Lemon Drizzle Traybake

This is a great recipe for a school fete, afternoon tea party or charity fund raising event. The cake needs to be warm (but not hot) to absorb the lemon syrup, leaving the crunchy sugar on top.

Ingredients

225g (8oz) butter, softened

225g (8oz) caster sugar

275g (10oz) self-raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

finely grated zest of 2 lemons

For the crunchy topping

175g (6oz) granulated sugar

juice of 2 lemons

1. Grease and line a traybake or roasting tin (30x23x4cm, 12x9x11/2inch) with non stick parchment/greasproof paper. I used a roasting tin but the edges will not come out completely straight.

2. Preheat oven to 160oC(Fan 140oC)/325oF/Gas Mark 4.

3. Mix all ingredients for cake in a bowl for approx 2 minutes.

4. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top with the back of a metal spoon or spatula.

5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40mins. The cake should spring back when pressed lightly with a finger in the centre and should be beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin.

6. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then lift the cake out of the tin with the lining paper. If you have two cooling racks I find it easier to tip the cake out onto one, remove the lining paper and then tip it back over the right way round onto the second rack. Place the wire cooling rack over a tray to catch the drips when the topping is added.

7. To make the topping, mix the sugar and lemon juice together in a small bowl and spoon evenly over the cake while it is still warm (but not hot). 

8. Cut into small squares or slices when cold.

Leave plain with the crunchy lemon topping or decorate with jelly diamonds (these are vegetarian so my daughter can eat them) or drizzle with thin random lines of white and yellow icing.