orange drizzle cake

I walked outside, picked an orange off my tree and grated the zest.  I don’t think I’ll ever get over the thrill of being able to do this.

Its a basic pound cake recipe and you whip it up in minutes.

I adapted a lemon version to an orange version, but you could just adapt back if lemon is preferable.

What you need:

• 225g butter – room temp, soft
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g self raising flour
• 4 large eggs – room temp
• finely grated zest of 1 orange (or lemon)
• FOR THE DRIZZLE TOPPING:
• juice of 1 orange (or 1 1/2 lemons)
• 85g caster sugar

How to make:

1. Preheat oven to 180 c
2. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
3. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing to fully combine between each addition
4. Add the orange zest and mix
5. I then did the the rest by hand: sift the flour over the mix and fold in to combine
6. Line a 8x 21 cm loaf tin (or you could make a 21cm 1 layer round cake) and then empty the cake batter, smoothing over the top
7. Bake for 45 – 50 mins, until golden brown, risen and when a tester is inserted it comes out clean.
8. when its removed from the oven, mix the orange juice and the caster sugar together but don’t over stir to dissolve the sugar
9. Pierce the cake all over the surface with a skewer or a sharp knife and then pour over the drizzle mix
10. The juice will get absorbed by the cake and the undissolved caster sugar will form a light sugary crust
11. Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before removing it

Its extremely moist with a nice crumb, perfect with a cup of tea.