Help with Lemon Drizzle Icing

tanith

Most of the icing is meant to be absorbed into the cake with a very thin watery layer on the surface, its not meant to have a thick layer on top. Your icing sounds exactly how its meant to be.

That’s what I’ve always understood, too.
I now have a real yen for a lemon drizzle cake! But only one small lemon so it’ll have to wait.

Has anyone made an orange drizzle cake ?

I always prick the warm cake with a skewer, leave it in the tin and squeeze the juice of a lemon over it (the zest has gone into the mixture). Then allow to cool, take out of tin and stand on a rack and mix the juice of a second lemon with as much icing sugar as it will absorb (as pp have said, lemons vary, so you can't be exact) until it's fairly thick. Spoon over cake, starting in the centre, and allow to drip down the sides. Stand until set.
This gives a moist, very lemony cake with a layer of lemon icing on top. It's the most requested cake when the family comes (& I made four last Christmas as special requests) so I know it tastes good 🙂

I start with the icing sugar and add the lemon juice slowly until it has the right consistency not the other way around. There is less waste.

I always use the granulated sugar and lemon juice drizzle rather than glacé icing, it soaks into the cake and leaves a lovely lemony crunchy topping, yum

I use brown caster sugar. It works for me.

I don't like it with a layer of gooey white and lemon icing on the top; the Marks and Spencers version is like this UGH!

Never heard of making it with granulated sugar, if I still made them I would give it try. Crunchy lemon sugar yum.

I think the term icing is a bit misleading, the way I gave above is more of a thick glaze really. Probably not what comes to mind when you think of icing, certainly not like iced buns or fairy cakes.

Oooooo, hadn’t thought of using granulated, or any other kind of, sugar. I’ll give it a try next time, thanks.

mumski how did you get on?

I was going to add what had already been said - the ‘icing’ is made with granulated sugar and NOT icing sugar. The lemon flavour oozes into the cake and the granulated sugar forms a crunchy topping.
Nothing to stop you drizzling a little glacé icing on top too, afterwards? Just add lemon juice to sifted icing sugar until you get the desired consistency. Put it in a polythene bag and snip the corner off.

Try putting some butter in the icing, it’ll stay put then!

Lindy that was exactly what I was going to say. But I use demerara. Lemon drizzle does not having icing it's just lemony crunchy sugar top and with the holes pricked into it seeps into the cake and gives a lemony hit when eaten .

I always let my lemon drizzle sponge cool for a few minutes, make lots of small holes with a skewer. Then I always mix GRANULATED sugar with lemon juice and immediately pour over warm cake. Leave to cool completely and this creates a lovely lemony opaque crunch on top of the cake

NotSpaghetti

I do much the same as lixy - nothing much by way of "icing" on the top but very lemony and with swirls of zest.

Here's a photo of the Mary Berry version which looks more like mine - but I always make mine in a loaf tin.

Mmmm !

Lemon drizzle icing is meant to look just like a drizzle, not a coating of icing. Think of a bit like a spiders web or a very light frost on grass. Anything thicker will ruin the lemon flavour making it too sweet.

I do mine as jusnoneed does, the first pour onto the cake is usually mostly absorbed, and then when the cake has cooled a little more I drizzle a slightly thicker icing over the cake. If you do it when the cake is too warm there will be nothing left on the top.

I make mine so that it has an icing on the top, I like it fairly thin but it's easily made a bit thicker. When the cake comes out of the oven let it cool for 5 mins or so then prick it with skewer. Take 85g icing sugar and divide in half, add the juice of one lemon (grated rind goes in cake mix) to one half. Spoon half of this mix over the cake and let it soak in. Add the other half of the icing sugar to the remaining juice mix. This is a thin icing. If you want it thicker add more sugar.

I think I probably had a picture in my head of quite a thickish layer of icing. However I think you are all right, that what I was doing was probably the traditional way - a Mary Berry recipe originally. Going to use your ideas and go with it.
Thank you everyone x

Amy Treasure has some great ideas on Nigella Lawson's lemon drizzle cake .

To be honest I've never seen a layer of icing on a home-made one.

Maybe some people do it afterwards using melted fondant icing with lemon?
I have dipped cupcakes into that and it makes a great smooth coating.

Most of the icing is meant to be absorbed into the cake with a very thin watery layer on the surface, its not meant to have a thick layer on top. Your icing sounds exactly how its meant to be.

I do much the same as lixy - nothing much by way of "icing" on the top but very lemony and with swirls of zest.

Here's a photo of the Mary Berry version which looks more like mine - but I always make mine in a loaf tin.

For a lemon drizzle loaf:
First I take long thin strips of zest from one lemon. Then I juice the lemon and add about 80g icing sugar. It isn’t exact as lemons come in different juicinesses.
I make holes in the warm cake and pour the icing over the top. Most of the icing is absorbed into the cake. The top is shiny and has the long zest curls to decorate.

It looks (and tastes) good!
Hope you find a recipe that works for you.

I’d hazard a guess that you’ve used too much liquid. When making glace icing I put the icing sugar in the bowl and then add liquid in very small quantities - teaspoonful at a time - until I get the right consistency.