We may have been talking about this non stop for the past week, but in case anyone’s missed it… the bake off is back! And along with it, comes our weekly bakes showcasing our take on the show’s challenges. The first week was cake week so here’s our signature drizzle cake, and guys… this one’s a good’un.
Right so maybe we should’ve taken on something a little more challenging for the first week, but we’ve already made jaffa cakes and we have plans for a cake with mirror glaze in the very near future… so the signature bake it was. It also helps that we’ve been talking about doing a pink grapefruit drizzle cake for a while and this just happened to be the perfect excuse!
So before we get down to the recipe, what are we thinking about this year’s contestants?! We’re reserving final judgement on our favourites this series until we know them all a little better. But currently Selasi is leading the pack, we think he’s got some nifty skills up his sleeve and can’t wait to see what tricks he pulls out the bag!
So yes, drizzle cake, we went for pink grapefruit because we think citrus works so well for this type of cake, and grapefruit is such a good citrus fruit that we really don’t think gets the attention it deserves! (Plus have you dried putting it in your gin and tonic?! it’s delicious)
We normally do our drizzle cakes in a loaf tin, but to mix things up a bit (and because it makes more cake) we used a bundt tin and love the look it gave. If you’re wanting to stick to the loaf tin you’re best off doing about half/2 thirds of this recipe for a regular 2 pound loaf tin.
We went for a double drizzle. Syrup poured over the cake whilst still warm to make it super moist and a simple icing drizzled over the top, made with just fresh grapefruit juice and icing sugar. When it comes to pouring your syrup over the cake, it’s best to do this about 5 mins after it’s come out the oven and still in the tin. If you pour the syrup over the cake when it’s too hot it’ll go straight through to the bottom and if you leave it too long and your cake has cooled then it won’t soak through at all! So yes, about 5 minutes and you’re golden!
- 350g butter
- 350g caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 500g selfraising flour
- 5 tbsp milk
- zest of 1 pink grapefruit
- juice of 1 pink grapefruit
- 2 tbsp honey
- 50g sugar
- juice of half a pink grapefruit
- 100g icing sugar
- zest 1 grapefruit (to decorate)
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in one egg at a time, whisking until incorporated.
- Once all of the eggs have been combined, add in half of the flour and mix well. Then add the milk and mix again.
- Add the rest of the flour and the zest and mix for 1-2 minutes until you have a well combined, smooth mixture.
- Pour into a greased and floured baking tin, we used a bundt tin, and bake at 180 degrees celcius for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Whilst the cake is in the oven, add all of the ingredients into a small pan on a medium heat, bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 30 sec-1 minute, then take off the heat and let cool slightly.
- With a skewer poke holes in the cake every few centimeters, then spoon over the syrup and allow to soak into the sponge. Once the cake has cooled for 5-10 mins and the syrup is well soaked into the sponge, remove from the tin.
- in a bowl mix the grapefruit juice with the icing sugar to form a thick paste. Spoon over the cake, allowing it to dribble down the sides.
- Sprinkle over the grapefruit zest to decorate and enjoy!!
We really wanted to keep decoration simple with this cake and let the gorgeous pink grapefruit flavour do the talking, so after drizzling over our icing we just sprinkled over some zest, making sure to get a mixture of longer and smaller strands.
