Lemon Drizzle Traybake

This week marks the second week of my diet (15lbs lost in a fortnight), but that doesn't mean the baking is stopping, in fact we have a bake sale at work this week in aid of a good cause so again I turned to my copy of the reliable Mary Berry's Baking Bible and checked out the traybake recipes, figuring that this would be the best way to go; the recipe doesn't produce any 'overs' so there is nothing I can be tempted (well, there is, but there is only just enough to sell for charity rather than stuff in my mouth).  Normally I would select a cupcake recipe, or a large layer cake, but I decided that this was the right way to go, and you can never go wrong with "Lemon Drizzle Traybake" or Lemon Drizzle in any format whatsoever.

The recipe was incredibly simple, granted I could have embellished it with lemon curd or something, but I chose to follow the recipe to the letter (this did admittedly prove difficult when I realised that I had absolutely no granulated sugar for the crusty topping though).

The whole thing took 25 minutes to mix together - including weighing everything out and mixing it in my trusty Mason Cash bowl (I will never regret spending the extra cash on that, it's massive and perfect for mixing all my recipes).

It started to rise the moment it was put in the oven (thank you recommended 2tsp of baking powder).

By the time it had been in the oven for just 20 minutes it was a lovely golden brown colour on the top and had started to come away from the sides.

Given the below freezing temperatures outside it took very little time to cool enough that I could put it on a cooling rack over a tray (which I lined with silver foil) and poured on what looked like an absolutely huge amount of lemon syrup (lemon juice, caster and demerara sugar - this should have been granulated but having gone on diet this was one thing I knew I would never be able to resist in my tea should I still have it in the house).  The cake now needs to stand until it is absolutely cold, then it will go in an air tight container until Tuesday (bake sale day).