Lemon Loaf thingymajig

I was lucky enough to get an extra holiday on Tuesday, we get a few 'free' holidays each year, usually after a bank holiday, making it a rather glorious 4 days off work.

Unfortunately I had a double session at uni which rudely interrupted my holiday, but I was determined to have an action packed afternoon. I had plans to hoover and change the bedding and wash the kitchen floor and iron and cross stitch...

However none of that seemed to happen. Where does the time go?

I did manage to get the ironing crossed off the list, I did that whilst I watched Diagnosis Murder and got a huge wave of nostalgia of being back at uni when my day wasn't complete without a hit of Dick van Dyke and his murder-solving doctor friends.

Nothing else happened though. For some reason, rather than clean I decided to bake! And really, there wouldn't be much point in me washing the kitchen floor for me then to get flour and eggs and butter all over it (you would not believe the mess I manage to make when I get in the kitchen).

So I turned to a little book I got ages ago, Good Housekeeping's Easy to Make Cakes and Bakes, and had a look to see what I fancied making. I came across these Vanilla Crumble Bars which looked amazing. Only problem was that it required a shallow baking tin and I don't have a massively well-stocked kitchen. I have one loaf tin so that was what I had to use.

I came out with a very nice loaf which wasn't particularly vanilla-y but was very nice and lemon-y. And I obviously didn't have bars so much as...well...a loaf. So I have re-christened it Lemon Loaf Thingamyjig.

Ingredients

250g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

125g plain flour, sifted

175g self raising flour

grated zest of 1 lemon

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease your baking tin.

To make the crumble topping, put 75g of the butter and 75g of the sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the plain flour and blend until you get rough breadcrumbs.

Put the remaining butter and sugar, self-raising flour, lemon zest, eggs and vanilla extract in the food processor and whizz until smooth. (Note to self: Next time you make this remember to put the blade in before you put all the ingredients in so you don't have to make more mess.)

Put the mixture into the tin and sprinkle the crumble topping over the surface and press down to cover.

Bake for 50-60 minutes (mine took a little longer to be honest), covering loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes if the mixture is browning too much. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out on to a wire rack.

Slice away and enjoy!

Okay so this didn't turn out like the picture in the book and I definitely wouldn't have called it a vanilla anything because the lemon is so strong it covers any vanilla flavouring. But what it is is lovely and light and citrusy and the perfect antidote to the depression of being back at work. My work colleagues all agreed as we munched away this afternoon with a good old cup of tea!