I consider lemon drizzle cake one of the stalwarts of the cake canon: it sits proudly alongside carrot cake, coffee cake, and perhaps Victoria sponge as time-honoured classics – not out of place at afternoon tea, a bake sale or on a bakery counter. It can be tricky to make, though, and I have had more than my share of cakes that have sunk in the middle or baked unevenly throughout.
In order to determine what makes the perfect lemon drizzle cake, I baked six different recipes – BBC Good Food, Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater, Felicity Cloake, Dan Lepard and Jamie Oliver – before developing my own recipe, which should result in a perfect loaf every time.
Mixing method
Most of the recipes I tested resemble a pound cake technique, with the creaming method: butter and sugar are creamed together until light and fluffy, and then eggs and dry ingredients are added, usually in alternating increments. Dan Lepard’s was the only exception: equal parts melted butter and oil were whisked with eggs, before dry ingredients were added. I found that while the crumb of this cake was finer and more delicate, the pound cake technique is more appropriate for a lemon drizzle loaf.
Flavour
To achieve maximum lemon flavour, I think it is necessary to add both the zest and the juice – Lepard and Oliver were the only two to do this, and I think the juice contributes not only to the lemon flavour, but also has a tenderising effect on the crumb of the cake. Salt is definitely essential to bring out the flavour of the lemons, and to balance the sweetness from the sugar and the acidity from the citrus. It also helps to rub the lemon zest into the sugar before you add the butter, as this helps the oils to release from the lemon zest infusing the sugar and producing a more intense lemon flavour.
Texture
Slater, Cloake, Lepard and Oliver all use almonds as well as flour, and I think this really improves the texture. It’s also important to cream the butter and sugar really well before incorporating the other ingredients, in order to achieve a light texture. The best way to ensure a really moist crumb is by soaking the cake in a syrup as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Baking and finishing
In my experience, it can be really difficult to bake a lemon loaf that rises properly in the centre, doesn’t sink in the middle, and bakes evenly throughout. To achieve this, it is important to use the right size tin (see note with recipe) and oven temperature. I also found that out of the recipes I tested, those that used self-raising flour instead of plain flour with baking powder worked best. Although this goes against almost everything I know about baking (plain flour with about 5 per cent baking powder should achieve the same result), all I can tell you is that for this particular recipe, self-raising flour is the best option.
In terms of finishing the cake, there are a few options: the BBC Good Food recipe and Felicity Cloake both simply mix sugar (caster and Demerara respectively) with lemon juice, and pour this over the loaf after it is baked. This creates a kind of crunchy topping as the lemon juice soaks in and the sugar forms a crust on top. Lepard uses a similar technique, but with icing sugar instead, for a more refined finish. Lawson, Slater and Oliver make a quick lemon syrup which is used to soak the cake as soon as it is baked, with Lawson and Oliver going one step further and adding a lemon icing/glaze once the cake has cooled. This was my favourite technique, as the syrup soaks into the hot cake, while the glaze sits on top, providing a lovely textural experience and extra lemony flavour.
Recipe: Beth O’Brien’s lemon drizzle cake
References:
- BBC Good Food: Lemon drizzle cake recipe
- Nigella Lawson: How to be a Domestic Goddess
- Nigel Slater: Lemon and thyme cake
- Felicity Cloake: Lemon drizzle cake masterclass
- Dan Lepard: Lemon drizzle cake with lots of lemon
- Jamie Oliver: My Nan’s lemon drizzle cake
