Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake! – Back to Basics!
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An easy lemon drizzle loaf cake – lemon sponge, lemon drizzle, lemon icing… what more could you want?! Another post in my back to basics series!
Lemon drizzle loaf cake
So, say hello to your new lemon addiction. I have always been a fan of lemon flavours, and this new post, another instalment in my back to basics series, is my lemon drizzle loaf cake. It’s easy, it’s delicious, and I love it.
In the past, I have uploaded my lemon lime drizzle cake – which is fairly similar. It’s an old post, with different quantities, and is obviously lemon and lime combined! As you all adore loaf cakes even more now though, I thought I would do an in-depth post into this beauty.
Tin
So… when you are starting with a loaf cake, you need the right tin. Loaf tins can vary greatly in size, even if they are described as being the same tin. For example, I have three different 2lb loaf tins, but they are all slightly different in how much water they can hold. Usually, this is okay as long as they are similar enough! For reference, this is the 2lb loaf tin that I use! If it helps, the exact measurements are – 24.4 x 14.4 x 6.9 cm. This may help you if your’s varies slightly!
Some loaf tins are still 2lb, but they are slightly wider and shallower, which means the bake time can vary – but baking a loaf cake is quite similar to baking a Bundt Cake. They can vary dependent on tin, just like a Bundt Cake, but usually they work out the same!
When I line the tin, I usually grease it slightly and then add parchment paper on top. I don’t then grease on top of the paper. I don’t feel the need, and if you use the correct type of baking parchment, then you definitely don’t need to do it!
Cake mix
Now when it comes to the cake mix, it really is just a basic cake mix. Even weight quantities of butter, sugar, eggs and flour – with lemon added in. Because it’s just the basic cake mix, you need to make sure the quantities are correct.
You can help this by weighing your eggs, in their shells, but generally I find 5 medium eggs = 250g of mix. It’s much easier this way. If you use large eggs, they can often be 60g, so I would only use 4 eggs, and only 240g each of the rest of the ingredients. I hope this makes sense.
When it comes to the lemon, you have two choices. Fresh lemon zest grated finely, or lemon extract! Either work well, and they both work the same! I swap between both each time, and they both work well. If you want to use the zest, you can then use the same lemons for the drizzles later.
Bake
When baking a loaf cake, it can vary a bit just like bundt cakes, as mentioned earlier! The usual timings is 55-65 minutes, because it’s quite a lot of mix, in a smaller sized tin (compared to a round tin!).
Sometimes, the baking can take longer though. My oven is a fan oven, so I put it on the fan setting at 160C – I set the timer for 55 minutes, and then check it. If when I open the door and touch the tin the cake wobbles, it’s definitely not done! However, if it’s not wobbling it’s worth checking.
Checking a cake is a fine balance though. When opening the oven door, you really don’t want to take too long. For every second an oven door is open, you will lose LOTS of heat. If your cake isn’t finished baking, it can sometimes also sink if taken out too early.
Lemon drizzle
For the lemon drizzle, you want to mix together the lemon juice and caster sugar – it makes a sort of cloudy drizzly paste – spoon this over the cake once it’s come out of the oven and it will soak in. Leave the cake to cool fully before moving from the tin!
The wonderful thing about this sort of cake is that it’s simple, but it’s so delicious. The lemon drizzle keeps the cake lovely and moist – and it won’t dry out. I use my stand mixer to mix the cake ingredients together, and it’s amazing. Although, this isn’t essential.
Decoration
Once cooled, you can optionally decorate it – I use the icing sugar, ‘watered’ down with some more lemon juice – and just drizzle it over with a small spoon! I then sprinkle on some lemon zest to make it look pretty, but both the icing drizzle and zest are optional. They just look nice!.
You can of course leave it completely plain, top it with a buttercream or even a fresh cream topping – that’s the charm of a bake like this, you can do whatever you want.
Top tips
A handy method to check if your cake is ready, is to (carefully!!) listen to the cake – if it’s making a bubbling/crackling sound, then it’s not actually finished baking either. You’ll want to continue baking till the skewer is clean, and also not making a sound.
I classically use caster sugar for the sponge and main drizzle, but this can be switched with golden caster sugar, light brown sugar, or even dark brown – but the changes can change the flavour!
I use medium eggs as I have said, and I use self-raising flour. If you can’t access self-raising, you will want to use plain flour with baking powder added in. You whisk in 2 level tsps of baking powder per 150g of flour, before using it in a recipe! It’s often easier to make a larger batch though, and then just store the flour for later use! Easy and delicious.
I hope you love this recipe, any questions leave them below! x
Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 250 g unsalted butter
- 250 g caster sugar
- 250 g self raising flour
- 5 medium eggs
- Zest of 2 lemons (2tsp lemon extract)
Drizzle
- 75 ml lemon juice
- 75 g caster sugar
Decoration
- 50 g icing sugar
- 1-2 tsps lemon juice
- Lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan - grease and line your 2lb loaf tin!
- Beat together your butter and sugar together until light and creamy!
- Add in your flour, eggs and lemon and beat again until combined. It'll be a smooth cake mixture!
- Add the mix into the cake tin and bake. This can take 55-65 minutes - but check from 50 minutes onwards.
- Towards the end of baking - in a bowl, mix together your 75ml lemon juice and 75g caster sugar together.
- Once the cake is baked, drizzle this over the cake, whilst still in the tin. Let the cake cool fully.
- Once the cake is cooled, remove from the tin.
- If you want to decorate, mix in lemon juice to your icing sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
- Drizzle this over the cake, and sprinkle on some lemon zest for decoration! Enjoy!
Notes
- I use this loaf tin!
- If it helps, I also use this baking parchment in my bakes!
- As mentioned in the post, if you are using large eggs - use four large eggs, and 240g flour, sugar, butter.
- If your cake sinks, it hasn't finished baking! Loaf tin baking times can vary so check on the cake from 50 minutes onwards.
- This cake will last for 4-5 days at room temp! I store it in a cake storage tin.
- You can easily water down the icing for the drizzle with water instead, but the lemon juice is more zingy!
- If you want to make a smaller cake you can - reduce it down by one medium egg, and use 200g of ingredients. Or even reduce by two eggs, and use 150g of ingredients. The fewer the ingredients the quicker the bake time!
ENJOY!
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J x
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Great recipe, however I’m not sure what I did wrong. My cake smelt strongly of eggs?
How weird – I’ve never experienced that with a cake! It may be the eggs were off? Or you used eggs too large?
Hi Jane, really loving the sound of this recipe 😍 will be giving it a go today! I just wanted to ask if blueberries could be added to the mix, and if so- would I need to adjust the recipe? Thank you ☺️ X
Hey! No the recipe should be the same – I would add up to about 200g, and potentially coat in flour first! X
Thank you! Gave it a go yesterday and only added 80g just for the first try and omg it was amazing 😍😍 onyl about 2 slices left by this evening! Will definitely be making it regularly 😍 x
Oh my goodness this was amazing and super easy!! Love your page so much, thank you for all the recipes and for keeping us busy (and overweight) in lockdown! Stay safe!! Xx
So glad you liked the recipe!! x
Hi, would I be able to use this recipe for a circular 12” tin without any chances to the recipe?? Xx
A 12″ tin is a very very large size – comparing to an 8″ round for example, it’s 2.3x the size! I wouldn’t say it’s enough personally! x
Hey
I only have a normal whisk, not an electric one. Is that ok to make this recipe ? As I have seen a lot of people use electric whisks when making lemon cake.
Yep you can easily make a cake without an electric mixer – just follow the same steps, and beat like crazy with a spatula!
Hi, I’ve read your post and now understand better about the equal measurements of all ingredients including the eggs (thank you!) but if our eggs weigh more than your guide should we adjust accordingly? I’ve just weighed four eggs in their shells at 260g so I’ve measured all other ingredients to that quantity too… is this right? I think I’ve got too much mixture now for my 2lb tin but I’m going with it (might need a little longer in the oven)..,
Hey! yes basically it all needs to be equal! So four large eggs for example, at 260g I would use 260g of the rest! And yeah annoyingly some 2lb tins really do vary in size! Never understood why haha! x
Hi Jane,
So excited to try this bake today! Just a quick question – do we pour the drizzle over the cake as soon as it’s out of the oven or should we wait a little bit? Thanks! X
I pour it over just when its come out and then leave the cake to cool fully in the tin! x
Tasted delicious only issue I had it was too big for my 2lb loaf tin so it overflowed the tin slightly
Yeah as mentioned in the post ‘2lb tins’ can vary greatly in size!
Excited to try this I’m just woundering if could use granulated sugar rather caster sugar? It’s like gold dust atm 😂!
Hey! You can, I just prefer using caster sugar for cakes is all!! x
Hello! how many lemons would we need to make the juice? Xx
That can genuinely depend on the lemons as they can vary so much in size/how much juice they produce – but I would say about 2-3!
Can you use also this recipe to bake it in a square 20cmx20cm cake tin? Or would you recommend a different recipe?
Thank you!x
Can this recipe be used to bake in a square baking tin as well as a loaf tin? Its 20cmx20cm size! Or would you recommend a different recipe?
Thank you!
I have a few different lemon cake recipes you can look at – did you still want one layer? or make it into a layer cake? Say you wanted to bake this into one layer you definitely could but the baking time would still be quite long and you’d need quite a deep 8×8! (Also, please allow more time for replies before leaving another comment as I receive lots of comments! Thank you!) x
It would just be a one layer cake 🙂 which recipe would you recommend? I’d say the tin is regular size so probably not that deep! (Apologies for the extra comment – I didn’t see the first had posted!)x
Ah okay amazing – so I would maybe recommend using 200g flour/sugar/butter and 4 medium eggs for your square tin!! It will take less time to bake but I’m not 100% sure how long, so maybe check at about 40 minutes or so!! x
Sounds delicious thank you for all the instructions regarding tin size I wasn’t aware . So now to bake x
Thank you! I hope you love it!
How many lemons are needed to make the juice?x
That can genuinely depend on the lemons as they can vary so much in size/how much juice they produce – but I would say about 2-3!
I had a go at making this today and it is genuinely the nicest lemon drizzle cake I’ve ever made. Lemon drizzle has always been a favourite of mine and this literally melts in your mouth 😍