Lemon drizzle cake is undoubtedly a British teatime speciality with endless recipe variations.
Traditional formulas for making a lemon cake from scratch call upon core sponge cake ingredients and fresh lemons, though some suggest using lemon extract instead.
As for how Mary Berry makes this classic bake, her recipe adds one extra ingredient for the most delicious results – and an irresistible texture.
In her popular cookbook, Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, the British baking revealed how to make a “delicious lemon and poppyseed traybake”.
A dash of milk and, most importantly, crunchy black poppy seeds are important additions to the recipe. Poppy seeds pair well with lemon because the lemon’s acidity balances out the richness of the poppy seeds.
As for their flavour, poppy seeds have a slightly nutty tang and aroma and are commonly used in Eastern European and Middle Eastern cooking
The seeds, unsurprisingly from poppies, are a great addition to lemon cake because they provide a unique textural contrast with their slight crunch. There’s also no denying that the tiny black poppy seeds add a visually interesting element to the cake.
They are not short on nutritional benefits, with an estimated 6g of protein and 7g of fibre in just one tablespoon of poppy seeds.
Adding poppy seeds to your lemon cake creations is as simple as stirring them through the raw mixture before baking. It doesn’t matter whether you’re baking a bundt cake, loaf, or layer cake.
Method
To emulate Mary’s sheet cake, you need a 30cm x 23cm x 4cm traybake or roasting tin. First, preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/Gas 4.
Grease and line your tray with baking tin or roasting tin with greased parchment paper, and make a start on the cake mixture. Remove the zest from one lemon using a zester and set aside for garnish.
Now, take the second lemon and finely grate the rind. Measure all the ingredients into a large bowl, then add the grated lemon rind and mix everything by hand or with an electric hand whisk for about two minutes until well blended.
When the mixture is ready, transfer it to the prepared tin and level the top. Finally, bake the cake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake shrinks from the sides of the tin and springs back when pressed in the centre.
Once cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning it onto a chopping board and removing the paper.
For the icing, combine the lemon juice, sieved icing sugar, and mint to give it a coating consistency. Spread evenly over the cake, sprinkle with reserved lemon zest, and leave to set into a slightly crunchy consistency.
