Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

This recipe was requested by my little brother who is not a massive cake fan (more cake for me!), but really loves when I make a lemon drizzle cake. Another Nigella classic, I haven't changed anything in this recipe because, well, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'! This cake is so lovely and lemon-y and moist yet crumbly, it really is the perfect summer tea-time treat!

Ingredients

For the cake 

125g unsalted butter, softened

175g caster sugar

2 large free range eggs

zest of 1 lemon 

175g self-raising flour

a pinch of salt

4tbsp milk

For the 'drizzle' 

100g icing sugar

juice of 2 lemons (you can use more or less depending on how lemony you want your syrup to be)

Method

Lemon cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and grease and line a loaf tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs and the lemon zest and mix together.
3. Sift in the flour and the salt and fold it in gently. Add the milk and mix until all of the ingredients have incorporated and you have a lovely, silky cake batter which smells like lemons!
4. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and place into your preheated oven for 45 minutes. This seems like quite a while, but I would recommend definitely leaving the cake in there for the full time otherwise it will be undercooked and a bit wet in the middle. 
5. In the last 10 minutes or so of the cake being in the oven, you can make your lemon syrup for the drizzle on top. 

Lemon drizzle/syrup

1. Sift your icing sugar into a small saucepan and add the lemon juice.
2. Place on a low to medium heat and stir together until all of the sugar has dissolved and you're left with a syrup. 
3. When the cake is ready to come out of the oven - insert a fork to test that it comes out clean - pierce the cake all over with a fork or skewer. 
4. When you have pierced the cake pour all of that lovely syrup over the cake ensuring that it is completely covered and it is being absorbed. 
5. Leave the cake to cool completely in its tin otherwise it will break from the wetness of the syrup.
6. Once the cake has cooled, remove from the tin, slice, serve and enjoy!

The holes on the top of the cake are not the most attractive decoration to a cake, but it tastes so light and summery that it definitely doesn't matter! Hope you like this recipe as much as my little brother and I did! 

N.B. This isn't technically a 'drizzle' cake as there is no drizzle, it's a syrup, but that's what I've always called it :)