My daughter and I love anything lemon flavoured. Whenever I make my lemon curd, she’s there licking the bowl, and the jar never lasts more than a week. It can be tricky however, to make a good lemon cake with a natural lemon flavour, rather than a synthetic sweet flavour. This recipe uses only natural lemon juice and has a really sharp taste to it.

These dairy free lemon drizzle bars are light, fresh and delicious. They are really easy to make and travel pretty well too, so can be used in picnics or packed lunches. 

Now occasionally, when I’m baking for my blog, I get a wee bit carried away in the moment and I forget to take pictures of every stage. For me, baking is a kind of escapism. I love just getting into a recipe and taking my mind off all the other things going on in my life. That’s unfortunately what happened with this recipe, so you will have to forgive me for not having photos showing every step.

As my son quite rightly pointed out though with a smile on his face, “Don’t worry Mummy, that means you get to make them again!”

 

Ingredients:

5 oz Dairy free margarine

5 oz Caster sugar

3 Eggs

6 oz Self raising flour

Grated zest of 2 lemons

For the Drizzle:

Juice of 1½ Lemons

3 oz Caster sugar

 

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. I used a square 8 inch baking tin

Cream the margarine and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time, each with one spoonful of the flour

Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and put in the oven for 30 mins

You will know its done when the cake has a golden brown colour, the sides of the cake start to come away from the edge of the tin, and if you put in a skewer, it will come out clean.

To prepare the drizzle simply mix the sugar and lemon juice together

Once the cake comes out of the oven, spoon all of the mixture over the top, trying to ensure you distribute it evenly

Leave the cake to cool in the tin (Otherwise you will lose all your drizzle)

Once cooled, cut into about 15 slices and serve

If you wish to make them a wee bit more attractive, maybe to include in an afternoon tea, simply add a wee drizzle of icing to the top

Its worth noting that this cake freezes perfectly well in an airtight container. Often, I will take one out in the morning and wrap it in foil and put into lunch boxes. It will defrost by lunchtime and will travel quite happily, without ending in a crumbly mess.

If you are looking for other cakes that are good for lunch boxes, or picnics, check out my favourite back to school bakes.