It's Bake Off season and to celebrate we thought we'd share this recipe for Italian lemon cake from our CEO Meryl Davies.  Meryl told us: "My mother in law took all of us to Italy and arranged a day of cookery school. It involved watching other people cook and then eating the amazing food. I think no one else in the family has ever made anything we 'learned'. I love this, though, and make it whenever we have people over (forgiving friends + lockdown means I have got away with that so far)."

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Italian lemon cake  

This cake is moist and delicious and very easy to make. It’s my version of the Dolci al limone di Mamma Agata. This cake is very light and that’s all in the mixing. I use a hand held mixer (as it’s all I have). Try to get as much air in as you can.  

Ingredients 

150g sugar plus more for the ‘juice’ 
250g butter 
300g flour 
20g baking powder 
4 eggs 
Zest and juice of two large / four small lemons 
Pinch salt 
125ml whole milk 

Method 

Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees.  

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside. 

Beat the butter with the mixer until it’s very creamy and then add 150g sugar and keep mixing. I don’t have a sweet tooth so I always halve the amount of sugar I use – you can use up to 300g if you like things sweet.  

Add the lemon zest, salt, and eggs – one at a time. Keep mixing.  

Add your flour and baking powder mix 1/3 at a time and finally add in the milk. You should have a mousse-like consistency that’s airy and lemony.  

Butter a 21cm cake tin well and put in the mousse-like mix and bake for at least 45 minutes.  

Next make your juice by mixing the juice from your lemons with 4-8 tablespoons (that sweet tooth question again) of caster sugar and 300 ml water until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.  

Once the cake is ready, allow it to cool. Then slowly and in stages drizzle the juice mixture right over the cake.  

And there you have it – a moist and delicious lemon cake perfect for eating with fruit and cream or on its own.  

Meryl Davies