St. Clement’s drizzle cake

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Not everything in life turns out the way we expect it be and to me understanding that is part of growing up – learning to deal with deception and disappointment may not be a pleasant thing to do but it is certainly necessary. And exactly because of that I find it wonderful when something I expected to be great actually is, even little things like a good movie or a good book. My hopes were high for “Skyfall” and the movie fit the bill perfectly – Daniel Craig has proved once more that he can play the part infinitely better than Brosnan, Javier Bardem delivers another great villain (Joel and Ethan Coen knew what they were doing!) and Sam Mendes is as talented directing an action movie as he is directing drama.

Coincidently, a couple of days before I watched “Skyfall” Rachel Allen’s gorgeous book on cakes arrived, and that was another highlight of my week: the book is absolutely beautiful, packed with delicious recipes, and this citrusy and very moist cake is one of them.

St. Clement’s drizzle cake
slightly adapted from the beautiful Cake (mine was bought here)

Cake:
175g unsalted butter, softened
175g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 1 lemon (you’ll use the juice for the syrup)
finely grated zest of 1 orange (you’ll use the juice for the syrup)
2 large eggs
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk, room temperature
1 ¼ cups (175g) all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

Syrup:
juice of the lemon and orange
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 1.5l loaf pan, line with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon and orange zest until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. In low speed, beat in the milk (batter may seem curdled, don’t worry). Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the batter and fold in. Transfer to the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
In the final minutes of the baking time, make the syrup: in a small bowl, mix together the ingredients. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick several times with a skewer or dried spaghetti, then slowly pour the syrup all over the top, letting it soak into the cake. Leave to cool completely in the pan.

Serves 8-10