Mary Berry's Moist Lemon Drizzle Cake Recipe

This lemon drizzle cake is the finest you can possibly get. It might not look as posh as other luscious cream cakes, but the flavour is definitely the winner here. Tangy, yet sweet, moist and gorgeously golden, this cake is pure heaven. Put the kettle on, it's time for a tea party!

British people adore their afternoon tea cream, and this is one recipe to impress all your guests. Homemade goodies can never be beaten, that's for sure. I like using lemon in most of my baking, whether it's just lemon extract, zest or juice. One can never go wrong with it. It gives a fresh zesty flavour even to the most boring food.

Not sure if it's because of its happy colour, but when l think of lemon, l can imagine lovely hot days. Can you tell that l'm already looking forward to Spring?

You can make this cake into a regular loaf tin or 4 mini loaf tins, my Mini Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cakes with Lemon Icing were a big hit too.

Ingredients overview

And all you need for this lemon cake are a few simple ingredients that you already have around:

• flour - self-raising flour is the best for this cake, and I still like to add baking powder too, that ensures a fluffy and light sponge, rather than dense and rich.
• sugar - I used granulated sugar, but caster sugar is a good option too
• butter - make sure it's at room temperature, soft but not melted
• eggs -it's always best if the eggs are at room temperature when baking
• lemons
• milk - full-fat milk brings the best results, but semi-skimmed milk can be used too - I usually avoid skimmed milk in baking, as it's not rich enough.
• baking powder

STEP-BY-STEP photos and instructions

There are 2 golden rules if you want the achieve a perfectly moist lemon drizzle cake.

• pre-heat the oven before popping the cake in
• make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.

It is crucial that the butter is soft, but not melted. Cold ingredients mean that the cake will take longer to rise in the oven, which will result in uneven cake and not-that-fluffy cake. If helps if you have either a hand mixer, or a kitchen aid, so that the ingredients are mixed together to a smooth paste.

Mary Berry uses a regular rectangle tray for her lemon drizzle cake, but I decided to make my lemon drizzle cake round, so I used a regular round cake tin, and it looked and tasted amazing!

• beat the butter and sugar together
• add the eggs one by one and beat well after each addition
• add the sifted flour, baking powder, milk and lemon zest, and mix well to combine
• grease and flour a round cake tin, spread the batter evenly, then bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 35-40 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean

How to make the lemon drizzle

The drizzle is made of lemon juice and granulated sugar. It might sound too tangy, but trust me, it's the perfect drizzle for such cake. Once the cake is out of the oven, pour the drizzle over as soon as possible, so that the cake can soak up all that tangy drizzle.

Expert Tips

When I use the lemon zest in any baking, I usually buy the no-wax lemons, they are safer to consume than the waxed ones, no matter how much you wash the lemons.

Otherwise, if you only use the lemon juice, I don't think I would go out of my way to buy no-wax ones. Same with oranges, if the peel is needed, I highly recommend the no-wax ones.

I won't go into the cliché that organic food is better, but I do appreciate that better ingredients make tastier cakes, so there is no brainer here.

Also, do make sure the dairy products you use are full-fat, rather than skimmed or semi-skimmed, you will tell the difference straight away.

Recipe FAQs

Other drizzle cake recipes

Lemon Drizzle Muffins

Lemon and Elderflower Drizzle Cake

Orange Drizzle Cake

Coconut and Lime Drizzle Cake