Pastry
Lemon Drizzle Cake
A tender, buttery loaf cake made with lemon zest and a little ground almond, soaked while still hot with lemon juice and granulated sugar that sets into a sharp, crackly crust.
- Serves 10
- Bakes 45–50 min
- Makes 10 slices
- 900 g (2 lb) loaf tin
- British
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Butter a 900 g (2 lb) loaf tin and line it with baking paper, leaving some overhanging so you can lift the cake out.
Beat the butter (175 g) and caster sugar (175 g) together for 3–4 minutes with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs (3 eggs) one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour with each to stop the mixture curdling.
Add the rest of the flour (175 g), the ground almonds (50 g), baking powder (½ tsp), the finely grated zest of the lemons (2 lemons) and the milk (2 tbsp). Fold together gently until just smooth, then spoon into the tin and level the top.
Bake for 45–50 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. If the top browns too quickly, cover it loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes.
While the cake bakes, squeeze the lemons (you need about 90 ml of juice) and stir the juice with the granulated sugar (100 g). Do not try to dissolve the sugar: the grains make the crunchy crust.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick it all over and deep down with a skewer. Spoon the drizzle evenly over the hot cake while it is still in the tin, letting the juice soak in.
Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin; the sugar sets into a crisp, white crust as it cools. Lift out and cut into thick slices.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
See also
Chef’s notes
- Drizzle the cake while it is hot and the syrup cold, so the juice is drawn in rather than sitting on top.
- Granulated sugar gives the classic crunchy top; for a smoother, glassier finish use caster sugar instead.
- The ground almonds keep the crumb moist. For a nut-free cake, replace them with an extra 50 g of self-raising flour and 1 more tablespoon of milk.
- To make a traybake for 16 squares, double the recipe and bake in a 30 x 23 cm tin for 35–40 minutes.
- Keeps for 4 days in an airtight tin, or freeze undrizzled for up to a month.
A café and fête favourite
Lemon drizzle cake is a relatively modern British favourite. Drenching a sponge in lemon syrup goes back a long way, but the crunchy-topped loaf became a fixture of cafés and village fêtes only from the 1980s.
It is now one of Britain’s most-baked cakes and a regular on television baking competitions.
How this recipe was developed
We compared Jamie Oliver’s nan’s lemon drizzle cake with the most-rated versions on BBC Good Food (by Tana Ramsay), BBC Food (Mary Berry’s traybake) and Allrecipes.
- An all-in, equal-weight sponge. BBC Good Food and Mary Berry both use equal weights of butter, sugar and self-raising flour; we use 3 eggs for a 900 g loaf.
- A little ground almond. Jamie Oliver’s nan used plenty of ground almonds; a smaller amount keeps the crumb moist without making it heavy. His poppy seeds were not adopted.
- Extra lift and milk. Mary Berry and Allrecipes add baking powder and milk for a lighter, softer crumb.
- Zest of two lemons in the cake. Mary Berry and Allrecipes use two lemons; BBC Good Food uses one.
- Granulated sugar drizzle on the hot cake. Mary Berry and Allrecipes use granulated sugar for a crunchy top; BBC Good Food uses caster. All pour it over while the cake is warm.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Jamie Oliver: My nan's lemon drizzle cake
- BBC Good Food (Tana Ramsay): Lemon drizzle cake (4.7/5, 3,189 ratings)
- BBC Food (Mary Berry): Lemon drizzle traybake (4.8/5, 254 ratings)
- Allrecipes: Lemon Drizzle Cake (4.7/5, 24 ratings, 12 reviews)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.