from the kitchen - sicilian lemon cake

Wow, I just noticed I have done nothing but bake for the last week. I guess while I've been working on my Frosting for the Cause post, my mind has been pretty cake crazy. There were the chocolate dipped biscotti,  guinness cupcakes,  breakfast beignets (with more chocolate) and now Sicilian Lemon Cake.

I think it is due to the impending Spring, who keeps popping up then disappearing again, that I have been craving the sunshiney yellow of a real Sicilian lemon.

And like I mentioned before, while I was planning my Frosting for the Cause bake-off, I couldn't settle on one recipe, so I decided to make all of them to be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support. And since Macmillan are famed for their fundraising coffee mornings, I decided to go with a caffeine friendly theme.

So while you're sipping your espresso, wishing you were sat outside a street cafe in Roma, enjoy a slice of Sicily in this sunshiney drizzle cake.

Sicilian Lemon Cake:

- Pre-heat oven to 180c

- Beat together the 225g soft butter and 225g caster sugar until pale and creamy

- Add the 4 eggs, one at a time

- Sift in 225g plain flour, then add the zest of two lemons (save the juice for later)

- Mix well until combined - this is quite a thick and gloopy batter

- Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper or do what I did and butter up some mini loaf tins to make individual cakes - pour in your batter and level the top with the back of a spoon

- Bake for 45-50 mins for the large tin, 25-30 for the smaller tins - until a skewer inserted comes out clean

- Meanwhile mix up 85g caster sugar and the juice of 1-2 lemons (I used 2)

- Once your cooking time is up, remove the cake from the oven and prick all over with a skewer

- Pour over the syrupy glaze and leave to cool completeley, still in the tin

I know this isn't a flashy cake, there is no beautiful fondant work or bright colours but let me tell you, a slice with a black coffee, for breakfast, preferably eaten outside, is to die for. I made the big cake and four mini ones and they were gone before the day was over