Lemon and Elderflower Drizzle Cake

Although this household doesn't celebrate Mother's Day, which is a commercialised parody of the true meaning of Mothering Sunday, it's difficult to avoid noticing that the day is upon us again, earlier than usual this year, as it's tied into the date of Easter.

Adverts for ideas on how to treat your mother with a thoughtful gift abound in the weeks leading up to the day itself, although I'm not sure how many mothers would be thrilled with a joint of beef, unless a special meal was also cooked for them by the gift-giver!

So, my concession to the date was to chose a cake for the weekend that I particularly wanted to try, rather than thinking about what anyone else might like. I chose to make a lemon cake drizzled after baking with a lemon and elderflower syrup. I took this recipe as a starting point, but made a few changes. I substituted 50g of the flour with 50g ground almonds, used the zest of two lemons, and baked in a tin which was slightly smaller than 20cm, to make a nice deep cake. The cake took a little longer to bake because of this.

I don't like drizzle cakes which are too wet, but the amount of syrup added to this cake was just right. The flavour of  elderflower cordial and lemon together was pleasant but I think they cancelled each other out a bit - neither flavour came through really strongly, even though I had increased the amount of lemon zest in the cake. The texture of the cake was very good - moist from the syrup and almonds but still light - and the crunchy topping of granulated sugar was a nice finishing touch. This was a simple, plain cake which would also make a good dessert served with cream  or yogurt.