Lemon Tray Bake.

Tomorrow is St Peter's and St Paul's holy day of obligation I have managed to escape church in exchange for making a cake for the congregation. When I am not at university we live in a quintessential English village where the women run a flower and tea roster for the village church. the only thing we are missing is a WI. I am much looking forward to the village fete in a few weeks time as it is an opportunity to try out new baking recipes with no guilt over who is going to eat them or how much my waist line will suffer. I have relied upon a tried and tested recipe from the Mary Berry Aga cook book where she has a section devoted to tray bakes perfect for coffee mornings, fetes and school. It is neither an inspiring recipe nor one that you could not find elsewhere but if you are cooking in an Aga then the quantities are designed for a large Aga roasting tin. 


4 Eggs
350g Self raising flour
250g Caster sugar
250g Butter
3 Level tsp baking powder
6 tbsp Milk
zest 2 lemons


for the icing the juice of 2 lemons and either enough granulated sugar or icing sugar to make a thick consistency. I prefer the crunch of granulated sugar but children often prefer the white icing gained from icing sugar.


Pre heat oven to 180C or the grid shelf in the bottom of the roasting oven with a cold self. Simply mix all of the ingredients together and pour into the roasting tin. The mixture does not look like there will be enough but trust me it is. This does make a shallower cake designed to be eaten in fingers. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. If you are using granulated sugar ice immediately but if you are using icing sugar allow it to cool first.