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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Hi! I’ve used quite a lot of your recipes and I loveee them!!
I was just wondering if you could use sponge flour for this cake?
Also would this recipe work in a 8″ round tin or would I have to alter the measurements?
Thank you!
Thank you so much for the trick with the eggs! I’ve been searching for a lemon recipe for a while and this got thumbs up from everyone. It even beat their store bought favourite!
Easy recipe to follow, although for some reason it keeps burning on the top after about 30 mins, so it isn’t cooked in the middle. I have no idea what seems to be going wrong. I have a 2lbs silicone cake tin, my oven is fine for any other recipe but not this one. I’ve tried putting the cake lower down in the oven also. But isn’t going my way at all.
The only thing I can think that it’s on the wrong setting, or is too high – there is no reason it would burn so early on! x
Loved this cake. My daughter and I added lime aswell. Just wondering would it work as a marble cake with a orange dizzle/icing? Got to say great recipes made quite a few of them always turn out great! 👌❤️
Hey!! Ahh yay!! And yes you definitely could!! xx
Hi Jane would I be able to use a circular tin instead for this recipe. Would I need to change anything? x
You can – but it depends on the size of your tin!
Fantastic recipe! Really enjoyed making it and everyone loved it. Thanks for sharing your recipes☺️ X
best detailed easy to follow instructions I’ve ever read.
I’m a vegan so couldn’t actually eat the cake, but the feedback I got from everyone that had a slice meant I had to write to say thank you for this recipe.
Do you know of a vegan substitute so I can make lemon drizzle for a vegan friend? Thanks!
Absolutely delicious and so easy to make👍
Hi Jane, just came across you recently on insta and have tried this recipe first! I had large eggs so used only 4 like suggested but forgot to cut the rest of my ingredients……although my 4 large eggs weigh 260g? So should I have cut the ingredients down to 240 or kept it at 250? It’s in the oven……praying it comes out ok!!!
So it should be okay – but if they weigh 260 (they must just be larger large eggs) then you’d use 260 of everything else!
We absolutely loved this cake, easy receipe to follow.
So glad you enjoyed it!!
I can’t get self raising flour in the Middle East. Can I use plain flour?
You’ll want to use baking powder and plain flour – it’s 2 level tsps of baking powder, per 150g of plain flour!
Hi Jane
Please can you tell me what substitute of butter I can use for the stork as I can’t buy if from where I live?
Also can I make this lemon cake in cupcakes instead?
Thank you.
You can use any unsalted butter or baking spread for the cake. And you can, but I do have a lemon drizzle cupcake recipe on my blog x
Fantastic and easy recipe to follow. My husband loves it and so do I. Although my daughter is now requesting this flavour in muffins. Do you think this recipe will work as muffins?
I have a lemon blueberry muffin you can use, but leave out the blueberries!! x
Lush cake although during baking mine spilled over the sides a bit. I used a standard loaf Tin.
Could of got about 6 cup cakes out of the mixture so it didn’t spill but hey ho you live n learn 😂
Ahh yes – it will have been smaller than mine then!
Love this cake! Made it yesterday on a whim – wanted to bake and had an excess of lemons. Really easy to make and tastes absolutely amazing.
Hey Jane! Just wondering if you need to insert skewers before putting on the drizzle? Or will it still soak through the cake without doing that? Love your recipes!!
X
You can if you want, but you don’t have too!! x