This is a one bowl easy-mix cake. It's also very lemony - if you prefer a gentler lemon flavour, halve the lemon and icing sugar quantities.

Equipment

• cake tin (I use a loose bottomed 8 inch or 20 cm diameter one.)
• mixer or electric whisk (optional)
• non-aluminium saucepan

Oven Temperature

Preheated oven, 180-190C 350-375F GM4-5

Ingredients

• 100g or 4oz butter (softened) or margarine
• 175g or 6oz self-raising flour*
• 175g or 6oz caster sugar*
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 2 large eggs
• grated rind of 2 lemons
• juice of 2 lemons
• icing sugar*, at least 6 rounded tablespoons
• citrus jelly shapes

Instructions

1. Grease tin but do not line it.
2. Place all ingredients in a bowl or mixer and beat for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into cake tin.
4. Bake in preheated oven 180-190C for 45 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and leave in tin.
6. Prick cake all over with fork/cocktail sticks/skewers.
7. Decorate with citrus jelly things (optional, but if you put them on now, they have more chance of sticking.)
8. Put lemon juice in a pan which isn't aluminium and warm over a low heat with the icing sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add more sugar until the solution is nearly saturated or getting hard to encourage to dissolve.
9. Pour lemon syrup over pricked cake while both cake and syrup are still hot.
10. Leave to cool before turning out and serving. The loose bottomed cake tin helps here, with not having touch the very sticky topped cake.