Everyone loves a birthday cake. If you don’t, I can’t be your friend.

My favorite kind of birthday cake to bake is one that I know is reliable and trustworthy. Therefore my go-to cake is a classic madeira sponge.

For this particular recipe, I took the classic madeira recipe and added a touch of lemon. I took a shortcut on the buttercream and used my favorite ready-made option from Lidl. Cheap and cheerful and lends for an easier life for me!

Hope you enjoy!

Amy x

Ingredients
For the cake:
6oz butter, softened
6oz caster sugar
8oz self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp lemon essence
Splash of milk

For the drizzle:
100ml water
1 tsp lemon essence
80g caster sugar

For the decorations:
Tub of pre-made buttercream
1 tsp lemon essence
Wafer flowers

Method
Grease and line a 16cm round cake tin. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of flour each time, along with the lemon essence and milk.

Fold in the remaining flour and transfer to the prepared cake tin.

Bake in the preheated oven for approx 50 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Make the drizzle by heating the sugar, water and lemon essence in a saucepan over a low heat.

Make holes in the top of the cake using a skewer and pour over the warm drizzle.

Remove from the tin and allow to cool completely before spreading over the buttercream flavoured with lemon essence and decorating with wafer flowers.