Limoncello Drizzle Cake

So my mate's mum was turning seventy. She's a bit of a cracker, and loves a slice of cake. She's a brill baker, and on said party day, appeared with trays of cream scones, cheesecake, and a rum baba so strong, it should have come with a fire safety warning. One false move... Genuinely could not eat a slice then drive. No.

I did a bit of scouting about with the family, in terms of what kind of cake she would love. Turns out she adores a lemon cake, which is lovely, but in its natural state is also as dull as a Jane Austen book. This was going to be something a bit more lively.

This would be a moist lemon cake, laced and glazed with Limoncello, with a lemon ribbon running through the middle. I forgot to take a picture of the ribbon, because I was such a party animal*. I made it in the stunning new Nordic Ware 70th Anniversary crown tin, which seemed to fit the occasion and recipient just beautifully.

Cake:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g Homepride plain flour 
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 250ml low fat lemon yoghurt
• Zest and juice of a large lemon
• 5 tbsp Limoncello
• Yellow food gel

Topping:

• 500g icing sugar
• Limoncello
• Yellow food colouring gel
• Sugar crystals/pearls

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with melted butter and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ginger.
6. Pour the yoghurt into a jug, and add the Limoncello and the lemon zest and juice.
7. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
8. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
9. Remove 5 heaped teaspoons of the mix, and dye it yellow.
10. Pour half of the mix into your prepared tin. 
11. Spoon over the yellow batter.
12. Cover with the rest of the mix.
13. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
14. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
15. When completely cool, mix the icing sugar with enough Limoncello to make a runny icing. 
16. Add a little yellow food dye. 
17. Tip it over your cake.
18. Decorate with sugar crystals, and your work here is done. 

* Busy stuffing my face with other cake.

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.