Lemon Cake (Mary Berry version)
Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Cake is a tender, bright lemon cake that's covered in a 2-ingredient lemon drizzle creating a delicious crunch! Prep this tasty dessert in just 15 minutes!
Mary Berry’s Lemon Drizzle Cake is a tender, bright lemon cake that’s covered in a 2-ingredient lemon drizzle creating a delicious crunch! Prep this tasty dessert in just 15 minutes!
Bright and Sweet Mary Berry Lemon Drizzle Cake
Mary Berry’s Lemon Drizzle Cake is a Tray Bake that tastes wonderfully bright and citrusy with a lovely sweetness and hint of zing! The moist cake and crunchy icing make for an incredible texture combination that you’ll love!
What Is A Tray Bake?
A tray bake is a sweet food such as a cake that’s baked in a rectangle or square pan. It’s the term used for a sheet cake in the UK.
This particular Lemon Tray Bake has been a hit since the 1960s and for good reason! It’s light, fluffy, and covered in an amazing lemon drizzle that’s truly the highlight of this recipe!
Bake up this Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake in 40 minutes to find out for yourself just how delicious this British dessert is!
Mary Berry Lemon Drizzle Cake Ingredients
Mary Berry’s Lemon Drizzle Cake uses minimal ingredients to create a dessert that really shines! When choosing your ingredients for this recipe you do want high-quality ingredients for the best flavor and texture possible.
To make the cake, you need large eggs, unsalted butter, caster sugar, self-rising flour, baking powder, whole milk, and lemon zest. It’s also important to note that one of the most crucial parts of making this recipe is to use room temperature ingredients.
The room temperature ingredients create the best emulsion in the batter for the perfect tender crumb after baking!
Once the cake has slightly cooled you’ll cover it in the tasty, bright lemon drizzle icing! This is made by simply combining granulated sugar and lemon juice.
I highly recommend using fresh lemon juice to ensure you get the best fresh flavor in this cake!
Caster sugar is a common pantry staple in the UK. It’s finer than granulated sugar yet not as fine as powdered sugar. Caster sugar can be hard to find at grocery stores in the US, but you can make a substitute! Simply add 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar to a food processor and pulse.
What’s The Best Butter To Use In This Lemon Drizzle Cake Recipe?
I think that European or Irish butter is the key to the success of this cake! However, Amish or grass-fed butter are also great options as well.
These kinds of butter have a higher butterfat content than the typical American butter. This means that the butter melts faster as well as creating a softer texture, richer flavor, and more yellow color.
How To Make Mary Berry’s Lemon Cake
- Beat the eggs, butter, sugar, flour, baking soda, milk, and zest together in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until silky smooth.
- Pour the pale yellow batter into a baking dish that’s been greased with butter and lined with parchment paper.
- Bake the Mary Berry Lemon Cake in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes clean from the center.
- Transfer the cake out of the pan and onto a wire cooling rack immediately after removing it from the oven.
- Prepare the Lemon Glaze by stirring the granulated sugar and lemon juice together. Afterward, spoon or brush the lemon drizzle mixture onto the top of the warm cake.
- Cool the cake to allow the drizzle to create a crust over the cake. Then slice, serve, and enjoy!
Lemon Drizzle Cake (Mary Berry Version) Substitutions
With it being a minimal ingredients recipe, each ingredient is crucial. Therefore, I don’t recommend making any substitutions and making it exactly as written, if possible. But if you’re in an American kitchen, here are a couple that might be helpful when preparing this recipe.
Self-Rising Flour Substitute: If you don’t have any self rising flour, your can use 2 cups of all-purpose flour instead. Then just add 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the recipe.
Caster Sugar Substitute: To make a substitute for 1 cup of caster sugar: add 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar to a food processor and pulse.
More Lemon Recipes You’ll Love
- Lemon Meringue Slab Pie – Provides a large crowd with two dozen delicious slices!
- Perfect Lemon Bars – Tart lemon custard combines with a sweet shortbread crust!
- Easy Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies – Rich, sweet, and flaky cookies that melt in your mouth!
- Simple Lemon Tart – An easy-to-make dessert that cooks in just 25 minutes!
- Lemon Cheesecake Crepes – Perfect for dessert or even brunch!
Steps
Preheat the oven to 320°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter then line with parchment paper, pressing it down to secure. I like to use the wrapper from the butter used in the recipe to do the greasing.
Add , , , , , , and to a large mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixing for about 1 minute until silky smooth and pale yellow, scrap down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan, spread out evenly, and bake for 34 to 37 minutes.
Immediately after removing from the oven, use the lips of parchment paper to lift the cake out of the pan and place on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.
While the cake is cooling, stir together the and . Use a pastry brush to brush the lemon drizzle all over the top of the cake.
Allow the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes more so the drizzle creates a crust. Slice and serve.
Notes
- This recipe is slightly adapted from Mary Berry's famous recipe. I did not use lemon verbena and I converted it over to standard American baking units for my readers.
- It's important to grease the pan before adding the parchment so it's extra easy to lift out of the pan while hot.
- You want the butter to be VERY soft, so I recommend taking it out the day before you plan to bake.
- When a recipe like this only has a handful of ingredients, it's important to make sure that each one is high quality to deliver the best flavor and texture possible.
- Personally, I think that European or Irish butter is the key to the success of this cake. Amish or grass-fed butter are also great choices for this recipe. These butters have a higher butterfat content than your typical American butter, this means that they melt faster and create a softer texture in baked goods. They are also richer in flavor and more yellow in color.
- It is really important that all of the ingredients are room temperature to create the best emulsion in the batter for the perfect tender crumb after baking.
- It may not seem like there will be a strong lemon flavor since there's no juice in the batter and no zest in the drizzle, but I promise you, this cake is perfectly lemony. Not too overbearing, just bright and citrusy with a lovely sweetness and hint of zing.
- This recipe can be baked in two 8x5-inch loaf pans or a bundt pan, however, baking it in the 9x13-inch pan will yield the best ratio and texture, in my opinion.
- Caster sugar is finer than granulated sugar but not as fine as powdered sugar. It is a common pantry staple in the UK, but may be hard to find at grocers in the US.
- To make a substitute for 1 cup of caster sugar: add 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar to a food processor and pulse.
- Do not add the drizzle when the cake is hot or it may melt the sugar and we want to have that granulated texture in the drizzle for the signature "crunch" of this recipe. So let it cool for 15 minutes before adding, but not too much longer since we don't want the cake to be completely cooled when added either.
- You may be wondering why there's no salt listed in the ingredients, well, this recipe uses self-rising flour which is actually made with salt, so it's not necessary to add more.
- If you don't have self-rising flour on hand, you can use 2 cups of all-purpose flour instead and add 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the recipe.
- I personally serve this cake all on its own. It's light and fluffy and the lemon drizzle is the real highlight of this cake recipe. However, if you want to fancy it up a bit, homemade whipped cream and fresh raspberries would be delightful.
Nutrition
- Serving1
- Calories271
- Carbs37g
- Protein2g
- Fat14g
- Saturated fat8g
- Fiber1g
- Sugar37g
- Sodium166mg
Estimates per serving, when a serving size is listed.
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