Marian's Lemon Cake

This recipe is from the family cookbook. The blub in the book says “We started with the archbisop’s lemon loaf as our standard lemon cake recipe, but this one was given to Marian by a friend and is the favourite”. It has also been a favourite with our au pairs who used to regularly make it for the children. This one is for you Pia!

Ingredients

100g butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup of sugar

Grated rind of one lemon

Method

Melt butter, beat in eggs and milk. Mix flour, sugar and lemon rind in a bowl. Combine wet and dry ingredients. pour into a ring tin and bake for 30 minutes at 180C. Once cooked and while still hot, pour over one-third of a cup of sugar mixed with the juice of one lemon (this doesn’t need to be heated as Lucy recently found it when she created rather a sticky toffee on top of the cake).

Helen also says she always cooks this in a loaf tin - spray well and put a strip of baking paper in the bottom and going up the ends so you can get it out easily. Slide a knife around the sides before turning out onto a wire rack. If you are using a loaf tin it takes and extra 10 minutes. Check it is cooked by poking a metal skewer in the middle for a few seconds and then holding to your lip - if the skewer is hot it is cooked.