Lemon Syrup Pound Cake (Ray McVinnie)

Pound Cake
200g unsalted butter
350g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
5 eggs
250g plain flour

Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 20cm diameter loose bottomed cake tin & line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest, beating until pale and fluffy.
Breat the eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour until well mixed, but do not beat.
Pour the mixture into a tin and bvake for 45minutes to 1 hour, until a bamboo skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and let cool. Remove from tin and place on a wide platter with sides.

Lemon syrup
400g sugar
250ml water
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 3 lemons

Put the sugar, water, lemon zest and juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the suigar. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Pour the syrup over the cool cake and keep spooning the syrup over the cake as it soaks it up. Put into the refrigerator and cool.

Serve the cake in wedges with whipped cream or Greek yogurt.

The pound cake is very versatile and Ray McVinnie does a number of versions of it from the basic recipe above in his book "The Modern Cook" (published 2001). I've tried a couple of versions and they've all been easy to make and scrummy!