ROTD: Lemon Trickle Cake

Todays Recipe Of The Day is an absolutely delicious Lemon Trickle Cake. This recipe was my first attempt from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage 'everyday' cookbook. I do get excited about a new cookbook and having watched the River Cottage series on the television I was very keen to try out some of the recipes for myself. This was of course made all the more exciting by the fact that WH Smith are currently selling 'everyday' for £9.99 instead of £25. You can't beat a new cookbook, unless it's a bargain cookbook.

My mouth was watering just reading the recipes let alone getting a taste of them in real life. So if this is how the other recipes in this book are going to turn out then I cannot wait to try out some of them.

The recipe was simple and easy to follow. I really don't think you could go that wrong with it. As Hugh states in the book 'It is essentially a victoria sponge mix flavoured withe lemon zest and drizzled with lemon icing'. What's not to like!?

This is meant to serve 10, but if your friends and family are anything like mine it won't make it that far. We like our portions big.

Here is the recipe, or you can head over to the River Cottage page and order a copy of the book.

• 175g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
• Three medium eggs
• 175g self-raising flour
• A pinch of sea salt
• A splash of milk (optional)
• 200g icing sugar
• 75ml lemon juice

Grease a large loaf tin, 1 litre capacity, and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together with a hand-held electric beater, or using a freestanding electric mixer, until very pale and fluffy – at least 5 minutes; up to 10 if you can manage it. This makes all the difference to the lightness of the finished cake. Add the grated lemon zest and then beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour with each (to help prevent the mixture curdling). Sift the remaining flour and salt into the mixture and fold in lightly using a large metal spoon. Add a little milk, if necessary, to achieve a good dropping consistency – i.e. the mixture should drop fairly easily off a spoon when you tap it on the side of the bowl. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the top gently and place in an oven preheated to 170°C/ Gas Mark 3. Bake for 45–50 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Put the icing sugar in a bowl, add the lemon juice and stir together until smooth. Leaving the hot cake in its tin, use a fine skewer to make lots of holes all over the top of the cake, going quite deep, but not right through to the bottom. Spoon the lemon icing slowly over the cake so that it all soaks in. Leave in the tin until cool, then turn out and serve in slices

I cannot wait to try out some more recipes from this fabulous book. Of course I'll let you know when I do...