Hilary Jones' Lemon Cake

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The LSO cello section are rather partial to a cake. When the message comes through the section, just after the start of a rehearsal, that someone's brought a cake, the break can't come soon enough! This is a particular favourite.

Lemon Cake

Ingredients:

170g softened butter

170g demerara sugar

170g self raising flour

2 medium eggs

3 unwaxed lemons

4 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C, 160C fan. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Whisk in both eggs. Fold in the sifted flour. Add the juice of one lemon, and the zest of two, and mix in carefully until well incorporated. Spoon the mixture into a greased or lined loaf tin 22cmx12cm. You could use a round tin, but I think the loaf gives nicer slices, and you can see the lemon syrup through each slice. Bake for 40-45 mins, until a skewer comes out clean. The top will be a bit crunchy, because of the demerara sugar. In a small pan mix the juice of two lemons with the icing sugar, and stir over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and it starts to get a bit syrupy. Spike the top of the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, and pour over the syrup. Leave to cool in the tin for a short while then turn out to cool on a wire rack. Serve nice fat slices.

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https://lso.co.uk/orchestra/players/strings.html