Easy Golden Syrup Cake: A Simple Loaf Cake Recipe (2024)

You’ll love this delicious golden syrup loaf cake–it’s the perfect sweet treat!

Learn how easy it is to make an old-fashioned golden syrup cake with this simple recipe.

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This delicious golden syrup cake recipe is going to be one of your new favorite sweet treats!

Made with golden syrup, butter, sugars, egg, and flour, it’s a sponge cake that bakes up in a loaf tin, making it perfect to serve alongside a cup of tea or coffee!

I love loaf cakes because they’re no-frills, easy treats to make. They satisfy your sweet tooth without requiring a lot of effort, and this golden syrup loaf cake is no exception!

It can be enjoyed warm or cold, but my favorite way is to warm a slice in the microwave for about ten seconds.

More Delicious Sweet Treats:

• Walker’s Scottish Shortbread Copycat Recipe
• Decadent Stroopwafel Cake
• Easy Biscoff Muffins
• Easy Vanilla Custard Cake
• Swedish Dream Cookies
• White Forest Cake Recipe

What is Golden Syrup?

Golden syrup is a thick, amber-colored syrup made from sugar cane. It’s also sometimes called “light treacle.”

The refining process turns it into an invert sugar, which means it will not recrystallize upon cooling. This helps to lend perfectly moist and tender texture to baked goods.

It has a sweet, depth of flavor other syrups don’t always have. It’s thicker than maple syrup, but more flavorful than corn syrup.

It’s popular in England and Scotland and is frequently used in various dessert recipes. It’s not as readily available in the United States, but you can find it in some supermarkets and here on Amazon.

How to Make this Easy Golden Syrup Cake

It’s really quite easy to make a delicious golden syrup loaf cake with this simple recipe.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

• Unsalted butter
• Light brown sugar
• Granulated sugar (or caster sugar)
• Golden syrup (I use Lyle’s Golden Syrup)
• Large egg
• Milk
• Self-rising flour

How to Make It:

Melt butter and sugars. To start, you’ll combine butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and golden syrup in a saucepan on the stove.

Heat this golden syrup mixture over medium heat, just until butter is melted and sugars are dissolved.

You don’t want to boil the mixture, you just don’t want it to be grainy. If it starts to boil, decrease to low heat.

Combine wet ingredients. In a large bowl, mix together egg and milk. You can mix the egg mixture by hand with a wooden spoon or use an electric mixer.

Add flour. Add the self-raising flour to the milk mixture, mixing just until smooth.

Add sugar mixture. Now you’ll add slightly cooled melted butter and sugar mixture to the batter, mixing until fully incorporated.

Bake. Pour the batter into a prepared tin (I sprayed mine with baking spray, but you could also use loaf tin liners or line with parchment paper).

I use an 8×4″ loaf pan, also commonly known as a 1 lb loaf tin.

Bake at 350F for about 45-50 minutes, or until the top of the cake is turning golden-brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Add syrup soak. While the cake is still warm, use a toothpick or cake tester to poke several holes all over the cake.

Combine 2 TBSP golden syrup with 1 TBSP hot water, and drizzle or brush this mixture over the cake, allowing it to soak into the holes.

Cool cake. Let the cake cool in the pan for about an hour, then transfer to a serving board or plate to cool completely prior to serving. This moist golden syrup cake is delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Notes and Adaptations for Old Fashioned Golden Syrup Cake:

• While this cake is delicious on the day it is prepared, it tastes even better after a day or two! This allows the flavors to deepen even more.
• Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container. I store mine at room temperature for no more than two days, but you can keep it in the refrigerator as well.
• If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make your own using plain flour (all-purpose flour).
• You can omit the syrup soak if you’d like.
• If freezing, double-wrap cooled loaf in cling film prior to freezing.
• You can make this recipe in an 8-inch cake tin if you don’t have a loaf pan. Start checking it at 40-45 minutes of baking.
• Feel free to add some lemon zest or orange zest to adjust the flavor a bit. You can also add chopped nuts to the cake batter if you’d like!
• If you can’t find golden syrup, you could try using honey or light corn syrup as a substitute, though the flavor will differ slightly.
• This cake would be a nice sweet treat following a Scotch pie!

Recommended Equipment:

• Medium saucepan
• Mixing bowl
• Electric mixer
• Loaf pan

Need another easy breakfast idea? Try our sausage balls made without Bisquick!

Be sure to save this recipe for later by adding it to your favorite board on Pinterest!