Trust me, once you try Lyle’s golden syrup, you’ll never go back to the stuff in the squeezy bottle, it’s amazing; sort of deeper and darker and more treacly in flavour. If you’re not into golden syrup though (but honestly why?), then you could always make this a honey cake or maple syrup cake, those would be good too.
And yes we’re Aussie, not British, but golden syrup is a bit of an institution here so I think it’s appropriate.
Baking with so much sugary syrup is tricky; this cake goes a very dark golden and sank in the middle just a bit when it came out of the oven (I opened the door and checked the cake a bit too soon and also, in retrospect, using a light coloured tin would be better). But the flavour and texture is so wonderful (dark, sweet and soft, a bit like gingerbread) and anyway, I just piled over some icing to hide the not-so-perfect top.