Preheat and prepare: Set your oven to 160°C (fan-assisted) or 180°C conventional. Line a 900g loaf tin with a strip of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides. The paper should look crisp and feel dry against your fingers, not greasy.

Cream the butter and sugar: In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and caster sugar together with a hand mixer for 3-4 minutes. You're looking for a pale, fluffy mixture that looks almost like whipped cream and smells sweetly of butter—when you lift the beaters, the mixture should hold a soft peak.

Add the eggs one at a time: Crack an egg into a small bowl first, then add it to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. The batter should look smooth and glossy, with no visible streaks of egg. If it looks like it's splitting, add a tablespoon of the flour to bring it back together.

Fold in the dry ingredients: Sift the self-raising flour, baking powder, and salt together, then fold them into the wet mixture using a rubber spatula. Stir just until you can no longer see any white patches of flour—stop as soon as the batter looks uniform and has a thick, silky texture that drops slowly from the spatula.

Add lemon zest and milk: Stir through the lemon zest and milk until evenly distributed. The batter should now smell intensely of fresh lemons and have a soft, dropping consistency—when you tap the bowl, the batter should gently ripple but not be runny.

Bake the cake: Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Bake for 45-50 minutes. After 40 minutes, check by inserting a skewer into the centre—it should come out clean with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The cake should be a deep golden brown on top, and the edges should have pulled away slightly from the parchment paper. If the top is browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes.

Make the drizzle while the cake bakes: In a small saucepan, warm the lemon juice and granulated sugar over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. You'll know it's ready when the liquid is clear and syrupy, with no gritty sugar crystals left on your spoon. Set aside.

Drizzle while warm: As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, leave it in the tin and poke holes all over the top with a skewer. Pour the warm lemon syrup slowly and evenly over the cake. Listen for the gentle sizzle as it hits the hot cake—that's the sound of the syrup beginning to soak in. Let the cake cool completely in the tin on a wire rack before lifting it out. The top should be glossy and sticky, and the syrup will have formed a thin, crunchy crust.