White Chocolate St Clement's Cake

A St Clement's Cake is probably one of my favourite cake flavours and it's no secret that I love a loaf cake so it stands to reason it was only a matter of time before I made one really doesn't it! I liked the idea of adding white chocolate into it though wasn't quite sure how that would taste. Awesome. That's how it tastes.

It didn't rise as much as I would have hoped and then I realised I never put any baking powder in. Even with self-raising flour, I always put a level tsp of baking powder in. I shall just have to make it again and see if that improves it. The other fail? I didn't really have enough white chocolate to coat the top properly. I melted, or attempted to melt, some white chocolate chips designed for baking. They don't melt very well I have discovered - probably because they're designed to hold their shape in a muffin or cake. Doh! Fortunately I had a bit of leftover white chocolate so I used that and in the end, even though it didn't look that pretty, it tasted amazing. This cake also incorporates a drizzle which I wouldn't recommend skipping - it made it deliciously moist.

This is the perfect Sunday afternoon cake. Enjoy!

White Chocolate St Clement's Cake

Ingredients

125g butter, softened

125g caster sugar

zest of 2 oranges

zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

60ml milk

150g white chocolate, roughly chopped

For the drizzle;

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 1/2 lemon 

100g caster sugar

For the topping;

100g white chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven 180c/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. (I use liners from Lakeland to make this easier!).

Either in a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then beat in the zests and the beaten eggs.

Gently fold in the flour, baking powder and milk before mixing in the white chocolate chunks.

Spoon the cake mixture into the lined tin, smoothing over the top and bake for around 45 mins. When the cake is ready, a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.

Whilst the cake is cooking, prepare the syrup. In a small pan heat the orange and lemon juices over a medium heat and then stir in the caster sugar until it is dissolved. When the cake is ready, take a skewer and pierce the cake a couple of times and spoon over the syrup.  Leave the cake to cool before removing from the tin. 

Either in the microwave, or carefully over a pan of water, melt the white chocolate and spread or drizzle over the top of your cake.

Leave to set a little before eating!

This was truly lovely and I shall be making this again very soon!