Nothing could be more quintessentially British than Lemon Drizzle Cake, especially when accompanied by a good cup of tea! Since growing lemons in Britain in winter is nigh on impossible, we’ve taken a leaf out of Cambridge Distillery’s book, swapping out the lemon in this classic recipe with lemon verbena that can grow all year round. That way, you can use hyper-local ingredients – just like the distillers behind November’s Gin of the Month: Cambridge Rosemary & Verbena!

Gin & Lemon Verbena Drizzle Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake

100ml Cambridge Gin Rosemary & Verbena
4 eggs
225g caster sugar
225g butter, softened
225 self-raising flour
1 tsp lemon verbena, finely chopped
1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped

For the Drizzle

75ml Cambridge Gin Rosemary & Verbena
50ml Cambridge Verbena tonic water
130g granulated sugar
2 tbsp of lemon verbena, finely chopped

For the Glaze

120g icing sugar
2 tbsp Cambridge Verbena tonic

Method

Preheat your oven to 175C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Grease a baking tin (29x9 cm) and line it with non-stick paper.

In a large bowl, use an electric whisk to beat together the gin, eggs, butter, sugar, flour, rosemary and lemon verbena. Pour your mixture into the baking tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a fork inserted into the cake comes out clean.

While your cake is in the oven, make your drizzle by combining your gin, tonic, sugar and lemon verbena. Once baked, remove your cake from the oven and while it’s still warm, poke with fork. Pour drizzle over and allow it to sink in.

Meanwhile, mix together the icing suga and the tonic water. Leave for 10 minutes, as the icing sugar will continue to dissolve and create a runnier consistency.

Once the cake has cooled, pour on the glaze and allow it to run down the edges - you can add a splash of extra tonic to the mix to get a runnier consistency.