Lemon syrup cake with passionfruit icing

I love lemon drizzle cake, or lemon syrup cake, whatever you want to call it - you know the one, where you bake the cake and as it comes out of the oven, stab it all over (remarkably therapeutic!) and pour a simple syrup of lemon juice and sugar over the top, pouring on more than you think can possibly be absorbed and then leaving it in the tin to cool. Delicious. I don't make it often enough. However, the presence of lemons and a desire to make this cake made me wonder if I could tart it up a little, perhaps make it a little more presentable and fragrant? And much as I adore all out lemon for the flavour, I thought passionfruit and lemon might be a good combination too. So the cake was born.

Lemon syrup cake with passionfruit icing
Ingredients
100g softened butter
120g caster sugar
135g self raising flour
2 large eggs
grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
2-3 tbsp milk curdled with the juice of 1/2 lemon

For the syrup
100g icing sugar
juice 1 lemon

For the icing
200g icing sugar
15g butter
pulp of 2 passionfruit

Method
- Preheat the oven to gas 4/180C. Grease and line a small, shallow baking tin 9 x 6 1/2" (23 x 16cm) with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and flour and mix well to combine. Add the curdled milk and mix in.
- Fold in the lemon zest (I find if I use my electric handwhisk at this stage all the zest wraps itself around the beaters, losing the point of adding it!)
- Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes until light golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, heat 100g icing sugar and the juice of a lemon in a saucepan until boiling and clear.
- Stab/skewer the cake all over and then carefully pour over the hot syrup.
- Allow to cool in the tin.

- For the icing, mix the icing sugar, butter, 2tsp water and the pulp of two passionfruit in a bowl sitting over a pan of hot/simmering water, until the butter is melted.
- Allow to cool a little before pouring over your cake.

The icing does set a little, but is still very sticky. I also found that the icing sort of came away with the surface of the cake when I was trying to cut it up, making it a sticky, messy sort of job!

Yum! Really good! The cake was deliciously moist and lemony from the zest and syrup, but light too and the passionfruit icing was sticky and perfumed in a really good way, adding a different flavour to the lemon. Lemon seems to be a universally liked flavour (apart from for the Caked Crusader!) and colleagues were really impressed with this cake, with a couple of new 'No, this one's my favourite' comments being heard!