I could make an awful ‘when life gives you lemons’ joke here but I won’t, because we all know that lemons make the perfect loaf cake and addition to a gin and tonic. 

This lovely creation was concocted over the weekend for a friend’s birthday – someone who loves cake and gin as much as I do. Naturally of course, I thought ‘well why not combine the two’ and so we have this amazingly light, zesty, slightly inappropriately named loaf cake, soaked in a sugary gin icing. Nice! 

Ingredients:

• 175g golden caster sugar 
• 175g baking butter, at room temp
• 175g self raising flour, sifted 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder, sifted 
• 2 lemons, the zest and juice of 
• 50g granulated sugar 
• 50 ml of gin (I used Gordon’s) 

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and line your 20lb loaf tin 
2. Grate one of your lemons to remove all of the zest, then cut in half and use a juicer to remove all of the juice into a bowl. Make sure there are no pips and set  aside both zest and juice
3. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy then beat in your eggs one at a time until all the ingredients are combined and your mixture is smooth 
4. Add your lemon juice, zest, sifted flour and baking powder to your mixture and stir until you have a smooth cake batter 
5. Pour the cake mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until the cake is completely baked inside and you have a slightly golden edge around your loaf cake 
6. Set aside your loaf cake and begin to make your icing. Again, remove the zest and juice from your remaining lemon and place in a bowl with the granulated sugar and gin. Mix together and get ready to pour all over your loaf cake 
7. Pierce holes all over your loaf cake with your cake testing needle (allowing all that lovely gin icing to soak right into your sponge) and begin to pour the icing over your cake with a metal spoon, ensuring all those holes are covered 
8. Leave the icing to set and serve 💛

Nic x