Lemon Drizzle Sponge Cake Recipe
A lemon drizzle sponge cake which has a zesty flavour, perfect for summer.
Ingredients
Ingredients for a 6inch Cake
- 368 g Self Raising Flour (13oz)
- 340 g Room Temperature Butter (12oz)
- 340 g Caster Sugar (12oz)
- 4 Eggs
- 2 Lemons (Zest and Juice)
Ingredients for the Lemon Drizzle (Sugar Syrup)
- 50 g Caster Sugar (1.7oz)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tbsp Water
Ingredients for the White Chocolate Ganache
- 600 g White Chocolate
- 200 ml Double Cream
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
- To start you want to prepare your cake tins. You will need 2 x 6 inch cake tins. I like to apply a thin layer of butter around the sides, dusting over some flour, before adding a circle of parchment paper into the bottom. This will stop your cake sticking. Divide your mixture between the 2 cake tins.
- Then sift your self raising flour into your mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. You want to make sure your butter or baking spread is at room temperature, so it will combine well throughout your mixture. Using a stand mixer or hand whisk, mix up your ingredients until they are fully combined. This usually takes around 30 seconds.
- Divide your mixture between your 2 x 6 inch cake tins and place into a preheated over at 180 degrees Celsius (which is 356 degrees Fahrenheit or gas mark 4). The cakes will take around 55 minutes to bake. You can use a skewer to push into the center of the cakes when you think they are done. If they come out clean your cake is baked all the way through.
- Once baked, let cool slightly before turning them out onto a cooling rack. Once cool you can level your cakes with a serrated knife and divide each layer into 2.
- To add more flavour you can add a lemon drizzle or sugar syrup. For this combine the caster sugar, lemon juice, and water into a saucepan.
- Heat this up on your hob until all of the sugar granules have melted (this usually takes around 1 minute). You then want to leave this to completely cool, before brushing this onto your sponge cakes using a pastry brush.
- For this cake you can use any filling of your choice, but I love the lemon flavour combined with white chocolate ganache. For the ganache you want to break your white chocolate into small pieces and place into a mixing bowl.
- On the hob, heat up your double cream until boiling. Immediately take off the heat and pour over your white chocolate. Let sit for around 30 seconds before stirring it through, until all the pieces of white chocolate have melted and you are left with a smooth mixture.
- Once smooth add your lemon juice and lemon zest and stir this through. Leave your white chocolate ganache at room temperature until it has firmed up enough to spread.
- This can then be used to fill and cover the outside of your cake. Spread some of your ganache on the top of your cake layer, before placing the next one on top, until you have added all 4 layers. Then using an offset spatula apply a thin layer of ganache over the outside of your cake, smoothing it down with a cake smoother. This is your crumb coat. Allow this to firm up in the fridge, before adding a final layer of ganache onto the outside of your cake. Again smoothing this down with a cake smoother.
Notes
Watch how to decorate your cakes with buttercream or ganache and get smooth sides in my step by step tutorial.