I think it’s fairly safe to say that summer in the UK has been… well… disappointing. The long, hot, balmy sunny days and blissful summer evenings have been replaced with, “THE SUN’S OUT! GET IN THE GARDEN!” and five minutes later, “…I have wet feet…”. But while we may not have been fortunate with the weather, these little treats always bring some sunshine into my house.
These tasty little morsels are so simple and so lemony! I’m a sucker for a good homemade lemonade, and these really remind me of just that – a perfect combination of sweet cake and sharp lemon. In fact, why not make some lemonade to really amp up the citrus?! I’ve popped a great recipe further down. Again, it’s so simple, perfect for parties, freezing into ice pops, or just enjoying whilst watching a summer sunset.
Little Lemon Cakes
Makes 8 small cakes – you’ll need a muffin tin and cupcake cases – silicone or paper
100g soft baking spread (or butter/margarine)
150g caster sugar
1 egg
100g self raising flour
1 lemon
Method
- Preheat your oven to 190°C/170°C fan/Gas Mark 5.
- Pop your cake cases into the muffin tin.
- Cream together the butter and 100g of the sugar until pale. I use an electric mixer, but a wooden spoon works the same – and gives you a great arm workout!
- Add the egg.
- Fold in the flour.
- Zest your lemon into the mix and give it a good stir. The batter is thicker than some cake mixes – don’t worry! It needs to be a bit more robust to take the lemon syrup…
- Use your ice cream scoop to portion out the mix into the cases.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until springy and just turning golden. Check after 20 minutes to see if they’re done. Poke in a skewer – it should come out clean.
- Now for the lemony syrup! Heat the rest of the sugar – 50g – and the juice from our zested lemon in a saucepan until hot, but not boiling.
- Prick the cakes with a toothpick and spoon over the syrup. Make sure you poke the toothpick right into the cake so the syrup soaks right into it.
- You’ll want to wait a bit to eat these – just until the syrup’s set and you’ve got gorgeous, crispy tops on them.
You could always make a lemon buttercream to top these with if you wanted fancier cakes – I love them just as they are though!
Double the recipe for more cakes! You can also make a large cake with this recipe. Just bake for 35-40 minutes.
Now that lemonade I promised you…
You’ll need 4 lemons and 4tbsp of sugar along with a litre of boiling water.
- Zest the lemons and squeeze the juice into a bowl.
- Add the sugar.
- Pour 1 litre of boiling water over the lemon and mix.
- Leave to stand for 10-15 minutes and then strain through a sieve to remove the zest.
- Leave to cool.
- Don’t forget the ice cubes!
Of course, you can halve or double the quantities, depending on the size of your party!
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