Lemon and Elderflower Drizzle Cake

This is my take on the Royal Wedding lemon and elderflower drizzle cake. We were going to an all-day party to celebrate Harry and Meghan’s nuptials, and I offered to take a cake. Due to the timing, of course I had to try to replicate theirs in some way.

This is my version – a light lemon sponge with elderflower drizzle and icing made with cream cheese, to temper the sweetness a little. Fit for royalty, right? A simple twist on the classic lemon drizzle cake.

As detailed below, make sure the elderflower cordial you use is strong enough. You can check this by reading the dilution directions on the label. The reason being that some cheaper elderflower cordials – such as supermarket own brands – are weaker. This means they will not reduce down to the right strength to make the syrup in good time. You need 100ml in any case – we’re not talking about just one or two tbsp elderflower cordial here.

The inclusion of lemon extract in both the icing and cake means there’s no need to use lemon juice, which could make the mixture curdle or too runny. Lemon zest is a good alternative for the cake mix, but you cannot use it in the icing without that also becoming too liquid. You don’t need baking powder when using self-raising flour.

If you don’t like too much icing, you could make half and sandwich the cakes together with lemon curd instead. Although there isn’t that much icing here – I tend to make less frosting than often found in other cake recipes anyway. You can use sugar or edible flowers to decorate this cake; good examples of the latter include pansies, roses or jasmine.

Makes 1 round sandwich cake

Lemon and Elderflower Drizzle Cake ingredients

Cake

• Baking margarine or butter (at room temperature), 200g, cubed
• Granulated or caster sugar, 200g
• Self-raising flour, 200g
• Eggs, 4
• Lemon extract, 1 tsp
• Baking powder, 1 tsp
• Salt, a pinch

Drizzle

• Elderflower cordial, 100ml (one that dilutes about 10 parts water to 1 part cordial, like Bottlegreen or Belvoir)

Icing

• Icing sugar, 225g
• Cream cheese, 100g
• Lemon extract, 1 tsp
• Edible or sugar flowers, to decorate

Equipment

• Cake tins
• Food processor
• Silicone spatula
• Metal skewer
• Wire rack
• Small saucepan

How to make Lemon and Elderflower Cake

• Grease each 20cm sandwich cake tin. Add all the cake ingredients to your food processor and process or mix until smooth (this takes about 15-20 seconds in mine).
• Put the mixture into the prepared cake tins. Then, using a spatula, smooth over the top so it is as even as possible. Bake in the oven, pre-heated to 160C degrees fan, for about 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into each comes out clean.
• After about 5 minutes, remove the cakes from their tins, and cool on a wire rack. At this time, skewer about 50 holes in the top of each cake.
• Place the cordial into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Then simmer, stirring very minute or so, for about 15 minutes; until it is thicker, and more syrupy. It should be reduced by about half.
• Remove from the heat and stir for a minute, then spoon the syrup over the two cakes, aiming to fill the skewered holes with syrup. Allow the cakes to cool fully.
• Mix the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon extract in the food processor until well blended and smooth.
• Once they’re cool, top one cake with no more than half of the icing and add the second layer. Spread the rest over the top of the second cake. Decorate with sugar or edible flowers.

Serve this elderflower and lemon cake for afternoon tea, or at a garden or birthday party.

Related recipes:

• Orange and poppy seed cake
• Basic Victoria sponge
• Almond and orange cake
• Coffee and walnut sponge
• Chocolate fudge cake

There are more yummy bakes to make on this site, including a pretty cherry cake.

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