Lemon Drizzle Traybake!

An easy, delicious and scrumptious six ingredient lemon drizzle traybake that is so easy, so tasty and always popular! 

I have been asked for this recipe over and over and HERE IT IS. Honestly, I can only apologise it took so long, but it’s a classically delicious and easy bake you can make at any time. IT’S SO GOOD!

Lemon Bakes

I just adore baking with lemon, there is just something about it that I adore. It’s one of the freshest and lightest flavours of bakes that exist and I am utterly obsessed.

I always think that lemon is a super versatile ingredient as well because I use it quite a lot in my savoury cooking, to bring out flavours, thicken sauces, etc. Whereas in the baking world, I will add it to as many things as possible.

The Cake

A cake like this is just the simplest of ingredients as well, and that’s what makes it such an easy and amazing bake. A bake like this should use as few ingredients as possible but have the most impact

• Butter – I use a baking spread or a room temperature block butter when it comes to the sponge of a cake like this. Both work really well, and you can use a dairy free butter easily
• Sugar – I use caster sugar as it’s the best basic sugar to use in a cake like this as it brings the sweetness without changing the flavour
• Flour – I find it best to use self raising flour for this as it has the raising agent already in the flour and creates a lovely light texture. You can make your own flour by using two level teaspoons of baking powder mixed in per 150g of plain flour
• Eggs – I always use medium eggs. It’s best to weigh them in shells for a cake like this and match the other ingredients, I tend to use about 7 for this amount of ingredients
• Lemon – I use lemon zest as I adore it, but you can also use lemon extract. 2tsps lemon extract is ideal

The Tin

Because this bake is a traybake cake the standard size I tend to use is a 9×13” traybake tin as it creates a good depth of slice to the bake, and I tend to use the tins a lot in cooking as well.

My other traybake cakes such as my chocolate fudge traybake, or my school cake for example use the same 9×13” traybake tins as well for the same reasons as above. There are quite a few different versions of the same tins out there but this is the one that I use.

I find it best to lightly grease the tin, and put a large piece of parchment paper into the tin. I often find it easiest to crumble the paper into a ball and roll it back out again, press it into the base and sides of the tin and then use bulldog clips to clip the sides into place whilst I am filling the tin before baking.

The Drizzle

So the main part of a lemon drizzle, is obviously, the drizzle. It’s such a simple part of the bake but it is vitally important and why everyone adores this bake. The drizzle basically guarantees that the cake will stay soft and moist and delicious.

They are often very similar if not the same where you mix lemon juice and caster sugar together. Some syrups you can heat first, but I am lazy and just mix the sugar with the juice. It creates an almost crystallised texture on top of the cooled cake so I adore it.

You can stab the cake with a fork before drizzling if you want, but as my cake bakes very flat I just pour it on evenly all over and it soaks in perfectly. If you want more or less drizzle you can go accordingly.

The Decoration

So, you don’t have to decorate this bake at all. It’s always optional to decorate a cake as I know I have a lot of followers who aren’t fussed about a decorated bake, but I just couldn’t resist. I find a little decoration can really carry a cake so well.

For this beauty, I just went for a simple lemon icing drizzle and some extra zest on top. It’s so easy to mix the icing sugar with lemon juice (you can use water, but I like the lemon juice for the extra zing) and mix until you have a thick paste. If you add too much liquid it will be much runnier and more translucent.

I use a small piping bag with the end snipped off to make the drizzle a bit neater, but obviously it’s meant to be a bit random. Decoration on a bake like this doesn’t have to be perfect. I used more lemon zest to decorate, let it set, portioned and ate a giant slice.

Tips and Tricks

• This bake will last for 4+ days at room temperature
• You can freeze this bake for 3+ months
• I use this traybake tin
• You can use lemon extract instead of lemon zest (2 tsps)
• You can use bottled lemon juice instead of fresh in the same way

Lemon Drizzle Traybake!

An easy, delicious and scrumptious six ingredient lemon drizzle traybake that is so easy, so tasty and always popular! 

Print Pin Rate

Category: Cakes

Type: Traybake

Keyword: Lemon, Lemon drizzle

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cooling & Decorating Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 15 People

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Cake

• 400 g unsalted butter (or baking spread)
• 400 g caster sugar
• 7 medium eggs
• 400 g self raising flour
• Zest of 2-3 lemons

Drizzle

• 175 g caster sugar
• 175 ml lemon juice

Decoration

• 100 g icing sugar
• 2-3 tsp lemon juice
• Lemon zest

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

For the Cake

• Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line a 9x13" traybake tin with parchment paper.
• Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs, self raising flour, and lemon zest and beat again until combined well. 
• Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until baked through. 

For the Drizzle

• Whilst the cake is baking, mix the lemon juice and caster sugar together in a bowl.
• Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and drizzle over the lemon drizzle
• Let the cake cool fully in the tin

For the Decoration

• Add the icing sugar to a bowl, and gradually add the lemon juice, mixing well each time, until a thick icing paste is made.
• Drizzle this over the cooled cake
• Sprinkle over some extra lemon zest, let this set, and enjoy!

Notes

• For a 9" square tin - I would recommend a 5 egg/250g sugar/butter/flour mixture. Baked for 35 minutes!
• This bake will last for 4+ days at room temperature
• You can freeze this bake for 3+ months
• I use this traybake tin
• You can use lemon extract instead of lemon zest (2 tsps)
• You can use bottled lemon juice instead of fresh in the same way

ENJOY!

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