calling cake makers - flavouring help!!!

Not an expert but I do make loads of cakes!

Lemon-flavoured sponge is lovely, but in my experience just adding lemon juice to a cake doesn't really make it particularly lemony - if I want a cake to be really lemony, bake the mixture that you have already with just a bit of lemon juice added, then when it's come out of the oven, make a lemon syrup by boiling lemon juice and sugar and pour that over. It sinks in as the cake cools and is gorgeous.

You could also add coffee if you wanted to make a coffee cake.

If you don't want to do that you cake will still be nice without any vanilla - just a tiny bit plainer.

thankyou.

The lemon bit sounded a bit complicated so I went with the plain. Will go out later to get some vanilla essence to add to the butter icing.

The lemon syrup idea isn't at all complicated and makes a plain cake taste really delicious!

Just heat up about a tablespoon of caster sugar and the juice of two lemons until the sugar has dissolved and then pour over the baked cake, I usually stab it a few times with a skewer without going all the way through the cake so the liquid soaks into the middle too.

The lemon juice will leave a lovely gooey residue on the top of the cake and act as a glaze. Yummy, I want one now!