Lemon Drizzle v.3

Delia Smith's cakes this time.

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

175g spreadable butter

175g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

grated zest of 3 large lemons

juice of large lemon

40g poppy seeds

For the syrup

juice of 3 large lemons

grated zest of 1 large lemon

50g golden icing sugar, sifted

100g golden granulated sugar

To finish:

1 rounded teaspoon golden granulated sugar mixed with 1 rounded teaspoon poppy seeds

1 rounded teaspoon poppy seeds

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3

A 20cm loose-based round cake tin, greased and base lined

All in one method:

Start off by sifting the flour and baking powder into a roomy mixing bowl, holding
the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down. Then add the butter, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and juice and finally the poppy seeds.

Now, using an electric hand whisk, mix to a smooth creamy consistency for about one minute.

Spoon the mixture into the tin, levelling it with the back of the spoon, and bake near the centre of the oven for 40 minutes or until the centre feels springy.

When the cake is ready, remove the tin from the oven to a board, then straight away
mix together the syrup ingredients. 

Next stab the cake all over with a skewer and spoon the syrup evenly over the hot cake, then finally sprinkle with the sugar and poppy seed mixture.

After that the cake needs to cool in its tin before it can be removed and stored in an airtight container.

Note: this is equally good made without the poppy seeds if you prefer.