Baking for Beginners: Hot Toddy Traybake

It's not often you can say a recipe was inspired by star of musical theatre Michael Ball. On the Great Sport Relief Bake Off (side note: that was months ago; how is Sport Relief STILL GOING?), he created a hot toddy traybake with whisky, lemon and cloves. While I applaud the idea, cloves are only good for toothache. And why no cinnamon and ginger, Michael? A missed opportunity. No wonder you didn't win.

If you've got a choice of whisky, go for a bourbon - its rich vanilla notes go perfectly with this cake. If you want to omit the booze altogether, substitute for 2 tsp of vanilla essence.

Best bit about making this: you just throw all the ingredients in together, blitz, and bake. You can get it done while listening to Michael Ball doing that song that he does:




Hot Toddy Traybake
You will need: 

• 225g caster sugar
• 225g butter
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp whisky
• 275g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Grated zest of a lemon

For the topping:

• Juice of half a lemon
• 50g granulated sugar

Make it!

1. Preheat the oven to 160C / 325F / gas mark 3. Line a deep, medium-sized tray or roasting tin with baking paper.
2. Put all the traybake ingredients into a food processor and blitz for 5 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and well-combined. If you're doing it by hand, then be prepared to put some serious elbow work in. You'll probably have to listen to Michael Ball do his song again.
3. Tip it into the baking tray and level off the top with a spatula. Bake for around 35-40 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then remove the paper and transfer to a wire rack. Leave for around half an hour until just warm, then mix together the lemon juice and sugar and drizzle over the top.