Lemon Drizzle Sunday...

As Marjorie Dawes once wisely said, 'Man, I love da cake!'

I'm not overly fussed with eating cake, I'm much more inclined to hunt down something savoury and crisp shaped but I do LOVE making cake. It's got something to do with the alchemy of it I think. Powdery flour, crunchy sugar, oily butter and slimy eggs can, with the right persuasion, turn into something wonderfully soft and fluffy and fill your house with the aromas of childhood.

While I can take or leave Victoria sponge, chocolate cake and carrot cake, I do have a soft spot for lemon cake either swirled with pretty, pale yellow frosting or dripping in sharp, sugary lemon syrup. This is my recipe, a combination of the two that I've made over and over again...

For the cake:

225g softened unsalted butter
225g golden caster sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs at room temperature, beaten well
1 tsp baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon & two tbsps lemon juice

For the drizzle:

2 tbsps golden caster sugar
2 tbsps lemon juice

For the frosting:

1 tub of marscapone cheese
5 tbsps lemon curd (home made or bought - my favourite shop bought is Waitrose's Zesty lemon curd)

1) Grease and line 2 x 8 inch sandwich tins and preheat your oven to 190 degrees (electric) / 175 degrees (fan).

2) Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy - this will take me about 5 minutes in my trusty Kitchen Aid or 10 minutes with my hand mixer

3) Slowly incorporate the beaten eggs into the butter and sugar, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a tablespoon of flour and mix well.

4) Carefully fold in the flour, baking powder, lemon zest and lemon juice until ingredients are well combined.

5) Spoon the mixture into your lined cake tins and level out the surface. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the sponges are risen and golden and the tops spring back when pressed lightly.

6) While the sponges are still warm and in their tins, combine the ingredients for the drizzle. Prick holes in both sponges with a skewer or a fork and slowly spoon the lemony syrup over both. Leave to cool in the tins.

7) When ready to serve, pop one of the sponges on to a plate or stand and spread 2 tbsps of the lemon curd over. Combine the other 3 tbsps with the marscapone and spread half of this on top of the lemon curd. Top with the other sponge and slather the rest of the marscapone mix on top.

8) Devour

Tips:

* Don't skimp on the time you spend creaming the butter and sugar - this is where you start to incorporate all of that precious air into your batter, those extra couple of minutes beating your batter will ensure a lovely, fluffy sponge

* Obviously add more lemon curd into the marscapone mix if you want it extra zingy - it's all about personal taste!

* The best self raising flour I've found is Sainsburys own fine sponge flour and eliminates all need for a sieve (and let's face it, the less washing up I have to do, the better)

* Make sure your baking powder is in date or you might as well be throwing talc into the mix for all the good it'll do.

* Lick the spoon! This batter is particularly good at inducing yummy noises.