The Great British/American Bake Off

A good friend of mine is a fellow baking blogger (see Baking-in-Brooklyn), and we have often shared and compared recipes. We decided to cook the same cake and compare, hence the 'bake off'.


After much deliberation we chose lemon drizzle cake - in any form we wanted - and the baking commenced!

I found a recipe for a 'Lemon Drizzle Traybake', and as usual adjusted it to fit my ingredients/equipment. I enlisted the boyfriend to be my official taste tester as he is a particular fan of the lemon drizzle cake.

Roxanne's Lemon Drizzle Cake

Firstly measure 4oz butter and 4oz caster sugar into a large mixing bowl. Mix together until light and creamy.

Add 5oz self-raising flour, 1 level tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp milk and 2 large eggs. Mix until well combined.

Add the grated zest of one lemon and mix until fully combined.

Spoon the mixture into a 8x10 in greased and lined baking tin and bake in a 160°C/gas 3 preheated oven for about 30 minutes. The cake is ready when it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and is coming away from the sides.

Leave to cool in the tray for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile make the 'drizzle'. Mix 3oz granulated sugar (make sure you use granulated rather than caster as it gives a nice crunchy texture) with the juice of 1 lemon.

Remove the cake from the tin and put it onto a wire rack on top of a tray (to catch the drips). While the cake is still warm spoon over the lemon mixture.

Leave to cool completely before cutting into pieces (mine made 15 generous-sized pieces).

I've made lemon drizzle cake a few times before, and this one was definitly up there with the best recipes. The sponge was very light and they topping nice and crunchy. Check out Jess's cake here bake-off-challenge-lemon-drizzle-cake and look out for more baking collaborations when I go to visit her in New York.