Keep reading for the best recipe for lemon drizzle cake you’ve tried…I’ll give you a hint, there’s Amaretto! I know what you’re thinking, you can’t improve on a lemon drizzle cake, it just can’t be done. Think again! Your childhood favourite has been given an adult twist that you’ll love, with the addition of an Amaretto syrup – inspired! Not only that, but this lemon cake is packed full of almonds for another twist on a classic.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 225g caster sugar
• Zest 4 lemons
• Juice 1 lemon
• 150g marzipan, broken into small nuggets
• 4 large eggs
• 150g self-raising flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 1tsp baking powder

For that boozy drizzle:

• Juice 3 lemons
• 3tbsp Amaretto
• 4tbsp caster sugar

For the glacé

• 200g icing sugar
• Lemon juice (until you have the right consistency)
• Decorate with toasted flaked almonds and lemon zest

First, get all the boring admin out the way – grease and line a 20cm (8inch) tin and set your oven to 180 C/160 C fan/350 F/gas 4

Whisk the butter (225g) and sugar (225g) together until they’re fluffy and pale, before adding your lemon zest (4 lemons) and your lemon juice (1 lemon). Keep mixing this before adding your marzipan nuggets (and eating a few if you’re anything like me…about half of the marzipan ended up in the cake).

Add the eggs (4) one at a time and beat the mixture well between each addition – don’t worry if it looks curdled, it’s all under control. Sift in the flour (150g), and baking powder (1tsp) before spooning in the ground almonds (100g) and beating briefly until smooth.

Pour your cake batter into the pre-prepped cake tin, pop it in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, before turning the oven down to 170 C/150 C fan/325 F/gas 3 and baking for another 50 minutes. In the meantime lick the bowl, this is a very crucial step – do not miss it out!

While your cake is cooking you can start on the boozy drizzle. Pour lemon juice (3 lemons) and Amaretto (3tbsp…at least) into a pan and heat until steaming. Stir in sugar (4tbsp) until dissolved. When your cake is out of the oven pierce it all over with a skewer and pour over the syrup. Once this has all been absorbed you can remove the cake from the tin and let it cool completely. If you want to freeze your cake, this is the point you would freeze it – and it can last for up to a month.

Last but not least comes the glaze! Mix the icing sugar (200g) with enough lemon juice to create a thick glacé. Then spoon this over the cake and edge down the sides with the back of a spoon. Decorate with toasted flaked almonds and lemon zest, and serve with a cup of tea!

Try out this recipe and let me know if you think it beats a traditional lemon drizzle (a hard task, I know).