English Lemon Cake
(Makes 10-12 slices)

A delicious yellow cake with a sweet lemony glaze added at the end. Perfect for cutting into finger-sized portions for tea.

1 C sweet butter (softened)
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ C milk
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Lemon Glaze
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C lemon juice
2 tsp. lemon zest (grated)

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add this, alternating back & forth with milk, to butter/sugar mixture. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 5 loaf pan and bake 50-55 minutes. 

Remove from oven and immediately poke a few holes in top with fork tines. Pour hot lemon glaze over cake and leave to cool in the pan.

Lemon Glaze: combine all 3 ingredients and, stirring, bring to boil. It should be thick and syrupy. Pour over cake as it comes out of the oven.

Tips & Glossary: New England

Clotted Cream: a thick yellowish cream made from unpasturized cow's milk. You can make your own, although it's hard to find unpasturized cream in the U.S. Still, you'll find 3 recipes under our Devonshire Scones. All use pasturized cream; try to avoid "ultra" pasturized.

Ginger:  dried ground ginger is far more potent than freshly grated from the root.   Sweet dessert recipes call for ground powder.  If you wish to use freshly grated ginger, use 6 times the amount of ground called for in the recipe. 

Ploughman's Lunch: sounds romantic, like a peasant dish from medieval times, but it's a marketing gimmick from the 1970's! It's a popular lunch in Britain now: a piece of bread, hunk of cheese, with onion, gherkin, and an apple. Our Ploughman's Soup is a take-off on that name.

Roux: (“roo”), paste-like mixture of melted butter and flour, into which liquid is gradually added. Used as a thickening agent for soups and all classic French sauces. Basic Roux: melt 1 part butter and add 1 part flour. Stir continuously till it becomes paste-like. Slowly add whatever liquid your recipe calls for.