Mrs Pettigrew’s Famous Lemon Cake

When we lived in England, we lived in Clapham, in South London. On the edge of Clapham Common, there was our favourite tea place, called Tea Time. It was owned by Mrs Pettigrew who did marvelous cakes and tarts. My favourite cake was her lemon cake, the recipe of which she published in a book, called Jane Pettigrew’s Tea Time.

I must have baked the Tea Time lemon cake at least a hundred times, and it gets better all the time.

This cake should be really lemony and moist, so if the lemons you buy are not very juicy use an extra one.

3 untreated lemons

45 ml caster sugar for the topping

100 g margarine or butter, softened

175 g caster sugar2 large eggs, beaten

175 g self raising flour

90 ml milk

Heat the oven to 170º C and grease and line an 18 cm round tin or a 900 g loaf tin.Grate 2 of the lemons and juice all 3. Put the lemon juice in a bowl with the 45 ml sugar for the topping and stand in a warm place until needed. The top of the oven is ideal. The sugar should dissolve and form a syrup with the juice.Cream the fat and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs, a little at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition. Add the grated lemon rind and the flour and beat hard. Finally, add the milk and beat again.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour until golden and well risen. Remove from the oven and immediately prick the top in 3 to 4 places. Pour the lemon juice and sugar syrup at once all over the hot cake so that the entire top is covered.Leave the cake in the tin until quite cold, so that all the juice will be absorbed by the sponge. Then, turn out and wrap the cake in foil until needed, to keep it fresh.

Enjoy.