Lemon & Orange Drizzle Cake

So this whole cake came about because I ran out of lemons. I also ran out of almonds. I wanted to make it in a loaf tin because it's easier to slice for the masses and carry to the office and I also left out the icing. I just wanted to keep it nice and light and moist. 

I used Jamie Oliver's  nan's lemon drizzle cake recipe, and improvised accordingly with orange juice and desicated coconut when I ran out of ingredients mentioned above.

You'll need....

For the cake part

 

115 g unsalted butter, softened 

115 g caster sugar 

4 large free-range eggs 

180 g ground almonds (I had about 100g of almonds so made up the other 80 using the coconut)

30 g poppy seeds 

zest and juice of 2 lemons 

125 g flour

1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder 

For the syrup

100g caster sugar

90ml lemon juice (so I used 2 lemons and 2 oranges here) 

You'll need to........

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, desiccated coconut, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.Make your lemon and orange syrup by heating the sugar and juices in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.

This was a big hit, so it was....... the orange made it a bit sweeter and the coconut gave it a little more crunch and the moist properties synonymous with the traditional lemon drizzle cake were preserved.A citrus success story.