Bergamot Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon drizzle has got to be up there with my most loved cakes. If there was a line up of carrot, lemon and chocolate caramel cake I’d be hard pushed to decide which to have, and, let’s be honest probably try to find a way to get a slice of each. You may have been following my bergamot adventures and it would have been silly not to bake a bergamot lemon drizzle cake as it combines two of my favourite things in one: tea (bergamot from Earl Grey) and, well, cake.

You will need:

• 250g butter, softened
• 250g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 250g self raising flour
• Zest from one bergamot lemon
• Juice from two bergamot lemons
• 3 tbsp caster sugar

Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180C. I always use an independent thermometer in my oven, it’s such a liar.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then add the eggs one at a time mixing everything together well before adding the next one.

Fold in the flour and bergamot zest. The cake should be a nice thick dropping consistency.

Pour the mix into the loaf tin then bake for 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown and fully baked.

Remove the cake from the oven and pierce all over with a skewer. I didn’t have one so had to use a fork instead.

Mix together then 3tbsp sugar and the juice from both lemons to make the icing. Pour this over the top of the cake making sure you get plenty in the holes then leave the cake to cool completely before removing it from the tin.

It would be rude not to serve this with a cup of earl grey.

If I were you I’d slice and sniff before making up the icing. If the lemon is particularly fragrant you may want to mix it with half a normal lemon, if it’s not very strong then use two bergamots to make sure you get the flavour out. I found some of mine were stronger than others you see.
Considering a bergamot lemon is slightly bigger than a lime it’s amazing how much juice comes out. This cake is lemon drizzle on another level, you certainly need to like the flavour of bergamot, and it was delicious. For some reason my icing didn’t come out as crunchy as usual but I made it on a Saturday and it was gone by the Sunday evening. I think an honest indicator of a cake’s tastiness is how quickly it’s gone, this one must have been rather good.