I recently have more time for cooking than blogging. Which I know it`s ridiculous, specially after the weekend is gone. I have three recipes on the queue for you and I will start with this lemon drizzle cake.

I never strictly follow recipes from books or chefs. I always put my twist in every meal I cook and try to create something that me or my family never ate before. For this cake though I decided to follow every single gram of it. The recipe is from Mery Berry`s website (www.meryberry.co.uk) as I admire everything she bakes.

I had all the ingredients ready and measured to the very gram. And yet I messed it up! See I wrote the recipe very quickly with a pencil on a peace of paper. Since I was also in a hurry to catch the sun light and take photos for this post I did some pretty stupid things. For a start I misread my own handwriting and instead of adding the peel of two lemons into the cake mix I added the juice of two lemons. Pouring the citrus liquid my heart stop for a second. Is this going to work? Shall I start from the beginning? Am I failing over a simple sponge cake?!!?!? However I decided to go ahead with the lemon juice in my cake and see what the result will be. Ready to bake I pour my mix into my new and lovely cake mold in a shape of Fatima hand. The symbol also known as Hamsa (means Five in Arabic) is believed to  protect you from bad eyes and energy. I got this mold from my competition in Top Chef Studio Dubai. The price is also reasonable -140 Dhs so you can give yourself a treat.

Back to my cake I set up my oven to 160 degrees but after 10 mins I realized that I actually failed  to start it (since it`s a gas oven). I am going to fail over a sponge cake!? I decided to speed it up a bit and start the oven (this time for real) to 180 degrees. After 40 mins of baking and a house smelling of citrus and butter I took my sponge out. I drizzled with lemon and sugar syrup and dusted with generous amount of caster sugar. I took few photos and finally got to cut a piece and try it. And there I couldn`t believe! It was probably the best sponge cake I have ever tried. It was so moist (probably because of the extra liquid I mentioned earlier :)) and tingly. The sponge soft and buttery, the edges crunchy and chewy. The lemon drizzle of sweet and citrus was just the perfect addition. I never seen myself eating so much cake. I will definitely make it again, but this time the lemon juice in my dough will be part of my recipe.

Ingredients:

– 225 g butter , softened

– 225 g caster sugar

– 275 g  self-raising flour

– 2 teaspoons baking powder

– 4 eggs

– 4 tablespoons milk

– finely grated peel of 2 lemons

– juice of 2 lemons

For the lemon drizzle:

-150 g caster sugar

– juice of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat the eggs with the caster sugar and add the rest of the ingredients. Pour the cake mic into a baking mold (or a tray) and bake for approx 30-40 mins. Take it out of the oven and drizzle with the lemon and sugar mix and dust the cake with caster sugar.