Gin and Tonic Drizzle Cake

Well, this bank holiday weekend isn’t looking like it’s going to be quite as fabulous as the Easter one, not here anyway. Although it’s not raining just yet, the grass is a little on the soggy side out there and the sky has a scattering of cloud.

So, in the absence of reaching for my bikini, I shall instead be grabbing the mixing bowl…the landing may need painting, the guest room may need clearing and I can’t remember the last time we saw the surface of the kitchen table, but apparently procrastination is my super power and I really can’t be bothered with that stuff right now!

I first made this cake during the Easter holidays when my Gin Buddy was over for our traditional Holiday Gin Day. We decided that gin cake would be the ideal thing to soak up all the gin we were drinking, so had a look online, picked out a few recipes, took the bits from each which we liked and gave it a go.

The cake was absolutely delicious, even if I do say so myself, and before you say anything, yes we tried it before we’d had too many gins so weren’t influenced by the powers of the great spirit.

If you want to have a go at making it, then our recipe is as follows. I’ve also attached a few pictures…although some of them look a little sketchy!

Gin and Tonic Drizzle Cake

What you need:

For the cake

900g loaf tin
200g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
200g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
4 medium eggs, beaten
½ tsp baking powder
Finely grated zest 1 lime
75ml gin (Pick your gin carefully as it will change the flavour of your cake)

For the syrup

125g caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
125ml tonic water (one small tin)
50ml gin

What you do:

This is quite honestly the easiest cake which I have EVER made. We didn’t even have an electric whisk (hence the slightly interesting looking mixture) and it still worked perfectly, producing a deliciously moist and light cake.

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4.
Grease the base and sides of your loaf tin with butter. (You could line it with baking paper if you prefer but just greasing it worked fine for us.)
In a bowl, beat butter and sugar with a handheld electric whisk (or in our case just using sheer arm power) until light and fluffy.
Gradually add eggs, beating well after each addition. (It is fair to say that ours looked a little lumpy and rather unappealing at this point, but we stuck with it!)
Fold in flour, baking powder and lime zest, followed by the gin. (I can also highly recommend consuming a gin whilst following these steps, as it makes the baking even more enjoyable!)
Pop the mixture into your loaf tin and bake for about an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Whilst that’s all happening you need to make your simple syrup to drizzle over the top of your cake. I also suggest you take this opportunity to pour yourself another gin, just to help keep things moving along.
Gently warm the caster sugar and tonic water in a small pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Turn up the heat and allow the mixture to boil for around one minute.
Remove your pan from the hob and mix in the gin.
As soon as the loaf comes out of the oven, poke holes into the top with a skewer and drizzle over the gin and tonic syrup mixture and allow the loaf, still in the tin, to cool on a wire rack.
Once the loaf is completely cool, remove from the loaf tin and enjoy…perhaps with another glass of gin and tonic.