Gin & tonic cake recipe

Gin & tonic cake is a delicious treat for all the gin lovers out there. Maybe you love a classic lemon drizzle cake and you want to spice it up? This boozy bake is just the one, because you can add your favourite tipple to a super delicious lemon bake.

This gin & tonic cake is perfect for afternoon tea or even for a summer celebration with family or friends, when it's sunny and warm outside - of course you need to whip up a few G&Ts to go with it.

You'll get eight good-sized slices of cake when making this gin & tonic cake, so it's a good size if you're making it for a small gathering.

The hard part about making this tasty gin & tonic cake will definitely be to resist all the gin going round...

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 200g (7oz) softened unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 175g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 75ml gin

For the syrup

• 60g caster sugar
• 60ml tonic water
• 60ml tonic water

For the icing and decoration:

• 50g granulated sugar
• juice of ½ lemon
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 lemon, very finely sliced with a mandoline

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).
2. Butter a 900g loaf tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl, and whisk with an electric whisk until pale, light, and fluffy.
3. Lightly beat the eggs in a jug. You just need them to all become the same uniform, yellow colour. Pour them, bit by bit, into the butter and sugar mixture, whisking all the while.
4. Gently fold in the flour, baking powder, and lemon zest, so you don’t burst the air bubbles in the batter. Pour in the gin and give it a gentle stir. Spoon into the prepared tin.
5. Bake for 1 hour. After 55 minutes, insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and, if it comes out clean, take the cake out of the oven. If it doesn’t, give it another 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, make the syrup. Put the sugar and tonic water into a small pan and set over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
7. Increase the heat and boil the syrup for 1 minute without stirring. Measure out 2 tbsp of the syrup into a small bowl and mix in the gin. (Discard the remaining syrup.)
8. Once the cake is out of the oven, use a skewer to make 8 holes in it. Drizzle the gin syrup over the top of the cake and leave to cool in the tin.
9. Turn out the cake, turn it right-side up again, and place on a wire rack. Mix together the ingredients for the icing and spoon it on the cake. Arrange the lemon slices along the top. Leave to set. Recipe taken from Nadia and Kaye Disaster Chef by Nadia Sawalha and Kaye Adams (£20).