Sour Cream Lemon Drizzle Cake

I have been craving something lemony and fresh in the form of cake big time this week.  I was also really desperate to use my new Nordicware fire tree bundt tin, it’s far too pretty to only use it over Christmas time!  Anyway, it’s still January and I’m going to look at it as my Winter cake tin Plus I have to keep hubby happy and use it as much as I can. I don’t want it to end up like the Madeleine tin I bought three years ago during a trip to Lakeland in Aberdeen. He loves to remind me that I am yet to christen my Madeleine tin – which I will do one day soon!

So back to the cake…

This really satisfied my craving. By adding lemon zest, juice and a touch of lemon extract you can be sure to end up with a very lemony cake, but not so much that eating a slice will make your mouth pucker.

Sour Cream Lemon Drizzle Cake

220g butter, very soft

300g caster sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons lemon zest (finely grated)

125g sour cream, at room temperature

60ml lemon juice

1/2 tsp natural lemon extract (optional)

300g plain flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

For The Lemon Drizzle

85g Caster Sugar

Juice of 1 1/2 Lemons

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease your cake tin very well or use cake release spray which I have recently discovered and I love it, especially when using bundt tins which can be inclined to stick like the devil (I’ve had many a disaster!)  I like the Dr Oetker brand and I’ve heard Lakeland’s is also very good.

Place the sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers until the flavour of lemon is strong. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and lemony sugar together very well until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, a little at a time, until incorporated well. Add the sour cream, lemon juice and extract if using. Don’t worry if the mixture looks a little curdled.  Add the sifted flour and baking powder and fold in.

Pour into your tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

While the cake is cooling in the tin, mix together the 85g caster sugar and the juice of 1 1/2 lemons.  Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer, then slowly pour all over the cake.  The juice will soak in and the sugar will form a nice, sugary crust (obviously if you are using a bundt tin, the sugar crust will be on the bottom of the cake!)

Leave to cool for a while, then carefully turn the cake out onto a wire rack and leave until cold (I left mine in the tin for about 30 minutes before turning out.)

Lemon Icing

100g Icing Sugar

The Juice of one lemon

A little boiling water

For the icing, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl.  Slowly add the lemon juice. If the icing is too thick, add a small amount (about 1tsp) boiling water.  You want the icing to coat the back of a spoon and have a thick but runny consistency.  Once your cake is cold, drizzle/pour the icing all over the cake.

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