DESSERTS

LEMON CAKE…Baked as a gift!!

I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.”
Madam Benoit

IMG 7210

LEMON CAKE sans sour cream…

Made my ‘twisted’ & ‘tangy’ lemon cake again…keeping in mind Zlamushka’s ‘Spoonful of Christmas’. This was a gift for a friend, and looked very pretty when dressed up. Convenient to gift too, since it’s already in a ‘case’! This time I used something very interesting…‘Lemon Sugar’ that my friend got from Ukraine. They have these satchets of lemon sugar that are very citrusy and add a lovely tang and kick to the cake. This recipe made 2 nice loaves…so we had one too! Yippee!!

I plan to make lemon shortbread cookies with the sugar too…in the near future hopefully!

IMG 6762

Sliced up & ready to be devoured!!


Ingredients:

Butter – ½ cup/100gms
Eggs – 3
Sugar – 1 ¼ cups
Flour – 1 ½ cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Yogurt – 4 tbsp / thick
Cream – 2 tbsp / 25 % fat
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Rind of 2 lemons

Lemon Sugar -1 tsp (optional)
Lemon Extract – 1 tsp
Orange Essence – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

IMG 7149‘Lemon Sugar’ from the land of the sweet babooshkas…

Lemon Syrup:

Water – ¼ cup
Powdered Sugar – ½ cup
Lemon Sugar – 1 tsp (or juice of 2 lemons)

Orange Extract – ½ tsp (optional)

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease and dust 2 loaf foil (7-8 inches) cases well.
  • Sift the dry ingredients together. Keep aside.
  • Mix the yogurt + cream+ juice of 1/2 lemon in a small bowl. Keep aside.
  • Beat the butter + sugar well until light and fluffy.
  • Beat in the eggs 1 by 1, scraping the sides down after each addition.
  • Beat in the lemon rind + lemon extract + orange essence + vanilla essence + lemon sugar.
  • On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients alternatively with yogurt and cream mix…in 3 goes.
  • If you like, you can mix a deeper yellow colour in 1/3 of the batter to get a marble effect.
  • Divide the batter into the foil cases, alternating with the deeper coloured batter, if using, and level out.
  • Bake for approximately 60 mins, or till the tester comes out clean.
  • Leave on racks in foil cases.
  • Meanwhile, while the cake is baking, heat the water + sugar + extract+ lemon sugar and make syrup.
  • Should taste nice and tangy…like a concentrate.
  • Poke the cakes gently with a skewer. Pour the warm syrup over the hot cake.
  • Drizzle some thicker lemon icing over the top & decorate with sprinkles etc. ( I used basil leaves too dredged in icing sugar…since I didn’t have mint leaves)
  • Allow to cool completely, and then wrap in cellophane paper and ribbons to make a pretty gift.

    IMG 7202

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

7 Comments

  • Patricia Scarpin

    I’d be smiling from ear to ear if I received this cake!
    Citrus flavors are right up my alley!

    Tks for stopping by my blog – now I have found yours too, how wonderful is that?? 🙂

  • Julie

    Baked goods make wonderful gifts and this looks fantastic. So do the truffles in your previous post. And that almond-orange sponge with chocolate ganache on your sidebar looks SENSATIONAL! Wow. You have lots of great things here.

  • meeso

    I bet this cake smells soooo good when It’s baking! It looks so good, I love the sprinkles on top 🙂

  • Jeena

    Hey there I love this picture of cake the sprinkles and decorations are fantastic it makes you feel like your having a real peice of home baked cake, lovely. 🙂

  • zlamushka

    Dear Deeba,

    you truly are a giving person.Your family must love you to pieces. thank you so much for sharing all these wonderful entries with my event. I am sure others will enjoy reading the round-up 🙂

    … and i loved the idea of iced bay leaf instead of thyme 🙂

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

C is for Chettinad Simply Delicious Lotus Biscoff Desserts Baking Pretty Eggless Desserts