Jemz Lemon Drizzle Cake

500g butter or baking margarine (room temperature)
500g caster sugar
8 eggs
500g self-raising flour
Rind and juice of 2 lemons (4 tbs Lemon juice) 

Syrup
3 lemons (keep the rind, you can freeze it
65g caster sugar

Topping
1 cup of icing sugar
enough water or lemon juice to mix a thick but runny paste (start of with a couple of table spoons and add more as required)

 Method

1. Pre heat oven at 150c. Grease and line a 10" spring form round tin

2. Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy 

3. Beat eggs and add a little at a time making sure egg is totally combined into the mixture and scraping down the bowl as you go

4. Sieve flour and add in 2 batches carefully mixing in but do not over beat

5. Add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of rind  and fold in gently

6. Place mixture in baking tin ensuring the mix is leveled off in the tins and bake for  about 50 minutes.Test cake by gently touching the center to see if it springs back firm or insert a clean skewer in to the center of the cake. Skewer should come out clean.

7. Once cooked remove the outer ring of the tin but leave cake on the base of the tin on top of a cooling rack for about 15 minutes before removing from the base. Allow to cool for a further 30 minutes.

8. Place cooled cake on a baking tray and pierce with a skewer

9. Heat oven to 180-200c. Make syrup by bring to the boil 100ml of lemon juice with the sugar. You can top it up with water if you don’t get the required amount of juice from the lemons. You can use bottled lemon juice for this if you prefer. Taste to make sure it suits your taste buds, adding more sugar or liquid if you prefer. Allow to simmer for a few minutes then spoon over the pieced cake.

10. For the topping place the icing sugar in a bowl first then add the liquid little by little to create a thick creamy but spoon-able icing (see image above). Cover the cake and spread quickly with a spatula, but be careful not to put too much pressure on the cake or the icing may start to pull the cake crust away from the cake. Place it in the hot oven immediately for about 1 minute until syrup looks almost transparent

11. Remove and spoon any of the excess syrup back over the cake, then allow to cool and form a crisp crust before transferring to serving plate.