Crackle glaze for Lemon Drizzle cake

[TheSkiingGardener]

I need to make a friends birthday cake and I know her favourite is Lemon Drizzle with a crackle glaze. I can make a cracker of a drizzle cake but the crackle glaze is eluding me. I want a translucent layer that breaks as you cut into it.

Any hints much appreciated.

Have you tried making a thin icing sugar and lemon juice glacé paste and putting it on the cake while it's still hot?

I've done icing sugar and lemon juice before but it's all soaked in. I guess it needs to be thicker, but how thick?

This is the quantities I use for the syrup and the glaze

For the syrup:

juice of 1 and a half lemons
100g icing sugar

For the glaze:

juice of 1/2 a lemon
150g icing sugar

I mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (juice of whole lemon) with an unknown quantity of icing sugar. Lots is all I can say. Probably at least 200g. But it's always a guess. Then I heat them up in a pan until it bubbles and pour it straight over the cooled cake. Makes a nice crunchy - crispy topping.

I mix lemon juice and icing sugar, then add in some granulated sugar and poke holes in the cake with a skewer so the thinner mix soaks in and then the granulated sugar makes a crispy, crackly top. What's not to like about extra sugar?

That sounds interesting Trafficjunkie. I have t tried that before. The BBC good food recipe shows a picture of the glaze I want but that doesn't work out like that when I do it. I'm after this:

Yeah that's what mine looks like when it has dried. Give it a try! Worse thing is it doesn't set but it's almost a guarantee 😊

I use that GoodFood recipe for the sponge, but always use caster sugar for the drizzle. It seemed counter-intuitive to me but is does go crackly.

Muuuuch better! Thank you! It turned out like this, I think a little more lemon juice and a thinner pour and it will be perfect. It's got that crackle to it.

I tried this today but bubbled it for a little too long. I now have sticky lime jelly on a tray bake

acatcalledjohn oh dear!! Only bubble until it's hot 😂

Ooh, no, spoke to soon. I iced it, gave it to DP for work (I iced it about 20 mins before he left the house), but after a while longer it did set as a crackle! Success!

Yay!