This One-Bowl Lemon Dessert Is Paul Hollywood’s “Favourite Cake of All Time”

Just like the Battenberg cake and the Victoria sponge, lemon drizzle is likely one of the most iconic British muffins. The loaf has a daring citrus taste, a moist, buttery crumb, and a signature drizzle of lemon juice and sugar that crystallizes right into a satisfyingly crunchy topping. It is a staple for British house bakers and is usually offered at bakeries and occasional outlets within the UK. It’s so well-liked that one in every of Britain’s most well-known bakers, chef and Nice British Bake Off decide Paul Hollywood, known as it his “favourite cake of all time” in his 2022 cookbook BAKE. “The proper lemon drizzle has a lightweight and ethereal sponge and a pointy, zesty crunchy topping,” he wrote. “It’s a complete traditional.”

Historically, lemon drizzle cake is baked in a loaf pan. There are, nevertheless, many variations, and it isn’t unusual to see spherical or sq. muffins within the UK. It’s a easy dessert that requires little greater than flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and, after all, lemons. Plus, the batter comes collectively in a single bowl and requires solely about 10 minutes of prep time—I believe the toughest half could also be ready for the cake to chill and develop its crackly topping. I is probably not Paul Hollywood, however my suggestions under will enable you bake a handshake-worthy lemon drizzle cake.

Easy methods to Make a Basic Lemon Drizzle Cake

Soften the lemons—and use a juicer in case you have one. The cake and drizzle require quantity—greater than 1 / 4 cup—of lemon juice. To make the lemons simpler to juice, I roll them towards a tough floor, which softens the rinds and the fruit’s membranes, making gentle work of all of the juicing required. (When you’ve got a lemon juicer, it is a good time to make use of it.)

Use room temperature elements. To aerate the cake, I beat butter and sugar collectively till it’s pale and fluffy, a course of that helps create pockets of air within the batter. To do that nicely, it’s key to make use of room temperature butter softened to about 60º to 65ºF (16º to 18ºC). As former Severe Eats editor Stella wrote in her vanilla butter cake recipe and primer on creaming butter and sugar, that is the temperature at which butter is most pliable, which ensures that your cake may have a good crumb. This, nevertheless, additionally requires that your eggs be at room temperature. “If the eggs are a lot colder, they’ll trigger the butter to grab, curdling the batter,” Stella notes.  “This breaks the emulsion, producing a cake with an uneven crumb (suppose bizarre pockets and tunnels, streaks of gumminess, or low quantity total.)” 

Poke holes in your cake. Pricking the highest of the baked cake with a toothpick, wood skewer, or cake tester helps the drizzle sink deeper into the cake, making certain that every chew is moist and bursting with citrus taste. 

Drizzle generously, then let the cake sit. To make the drizzle, you merely need to whisk collectively granulated sugar and recent lemon juice. You don’t need the sugar to dissolve right here: It ought to look thick, moist, and grainy. Because the combination soaks into the cake and cools on prime of it, the sugar granules will crystallize right into a candy, crackly coating. Granulated sugar is the very best sort to make use of right here; although the cake will nonetheless be scrumptious with a finer sugar like caster or superfine, these sugars gained’t have giant sufficient granules to type the crunchy topping.

I like to recommend making the drizzle in a liquid measuring cup, as that can make it simpler to pour over the cake. If the sugar begins to sink to the underside of the cup, simply stir to reincorporate it into the juice, and make sure you use a versatile spatula to scrape out each final bit onto the cake. Let the cake sit for at the very least three hours—this may give the drizzle extra time to settle and soak into the loaf, and ensures that every chew is moist, bursting with tangy lemon taste, and able to earn you star baker accolades. 

Cook dinner Mode
(Preserve display awake)