Lemon and elderflower loaf cake

 

 A summery twist on your standard lemon cake, this lemon and elderflower loaf cake has sharp tangy lemon combined with the fruity floral notes of elderflower to make a great afternoon treat. It's pretty simple to make too - simply combine the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together, add some milk until you have a runny cake mix consistency, and then bake in a loaf tin until golden brown.

I made this for my family when I saw them for the first time since February (thanks to you-know-what) and they loved it too! 

To decorate it, I made a basic lemon icing glaze (lemon juice, icing sugar, and water) and also experimented with some candied lemon slices which worked really well! They took up an evening of checking up on them but I think it was worth it. I followed this recipe to do that. 

You can find elderflower flavouring next to other cake flavourings in the baking section of Waitrose. If you're unable to find some, you can substitute it for elderflower cordial (but you may need a different amount so add it a little bit at a time and see how it tastes!)

This made one large loaf cake, and took around an hour to make.

Ingredients

• 150g granulated sugar
• 150-200ml oat milk 
• 200g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 110ml vegetable oil (or vegan butter, melted)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp elderflower flavouring
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt (if you don't have a sieve, you can whisk the flour with a whisk or fork to break up any large lumps). Then, add the sugar.
3. Add the oil, lemon juice and elderflower flavouring to the flour-sugar mixture and stir until combined.
4. Add the oat milk a splash at a time until you get a smooth, runny cake mixture that still has some pull to it when you mix it.
5. Line a loaf tin and carefully pour the mixture in. 
6. Bake for 30-45 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when you test the middle of the cake. I found the outside was done a lot more quickly than the rest, so after about 30 minutes you may need to wrap the cake in tin foil to prevent it from burning.
7. Serve, ideally with lemon icing and a nice hot cup of tea!