I am not a very lemon loving person. Though I like the shape and smell of it, I detest the tanginess of lemons. To be very frank, I seldom buy lemons from the market except if I have to use it as a re-freshener in my refrigerator. For a person like me, the sudden urge to make lemon cake came as a surprise. I really wanted something other than chocolate and this was a welcome change. With no delay at all, S went in to buy lemons and the cake was made! If I say this is the fluffiest, lightest and freshest cake I have ever made, it would be an understatement. We both loved it every bit and the cake was best along with coffee. But that doesnt mean, one shouldnt have it as an after meal dessert and that's exactly why we savored the last piece last night after dinner. This is surely going to be repeated again and here is the recipe -
Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Maida - 1.5 cups
- Lemon Zest - 1tbsp (depends on the tanginess one wants)
- Lemon Juice - 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp
- Sugar - ¾th cup
- Baking Powder - 1 tsp
- Baking Soda - ¼ tsp
- Salt - a pinch
- Egg - 1
- Thick Buttermilk - ¼ cup
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil - ½ cup
- Powdered Sugar - 2 tbsp
Preparation:
- In a mixing bowl, add the lemon zest and granulated sugar - mix it until its all wet and crumbly.
- To this mixture, add lemon juice, thick buttermilk, egg and extra virgin olive oil. Beat it until sugar is dissolved.
- In another mixing bowl, add all the other dry ingredients - maida, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Sieve them or mix them well.
- Slowly fold this mixture with the wet ingredients and make sure the batter is neither too thin or too thick.
- Pre-heat the oven at 180deg C. Grease and flour the baking tin.
- Pour the cake batter and bake it for about 40mins or until the knife inserted at the center of the cake comes out clean.(Depends on the size of the cake and oven).
- Once the cake is warm, remove it from the tin (running the knife through the sides helps in bringing it out).
- To prepare the lemon glaze, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to the powdered sugar. Mix it well. Apply it all on top of the cake (when its still warm). Let it cool down before cutting it or if you are like us, you can have a warm cake 😀
The Girl Next Door
I love this recipe! I have been waiting for a good recipe for lemon cake, and this sounds perfect. I am surely going to try this out sometime soon. Thank you! 🙂
One question - how do you remove the lemon zest? Can it be done with a regular vegetable peeler or does it need a special implement? Do let me know. If possible, do post some pics of how to remove the zest from a lemon.
CHCooks
Thanks a bunch TNGD 🙂 Pls do try it out. I am sure you will love it. And one more thing - this is actually a cross between cake and loaf. Ideally it should have been baked in a bread tin. As my quantity was too low for the long bread tin I had, I used a normal square mould. You can experiment, there is nothing that can go wrong.
I simply used a hand grater - the one we use to grate carrots and beetroots. I washed the lemon first, patted it dry. Kept grating the skin of the lemon until only white portion was visible on all sides - keep turning it over as you grate. Zest from two lemons came close to 1tbsp or more. Did this help?
CHCooks
It helped very much. Thank you so much! 🙂 I was just wondering whether to invest in a zester or not. I think I can make do with the regular vegetable grater that we use in Indian kitchens.
I am so going to try this out soon. As I said earlier, I love the sound of lemon cake, and have been looking for a suitable recipe since long. This seems to be it.
CHCooks
🙂 🙂 🙂 Do let me know how you liked it 🙂
mydearbakes
This is so marvelous! I'm falling in love with your bake! =D
CHCooks
Thanks a lot 🙂
onehonestwriter
I would like an eggless version, can you suggest something? I had a lemon ginger cake last year and I am still looking for it's recipe.
CHCooks
I should first try it OHW. I dont like eggless versions much, one should use a lot more baking soda to substitute for the loss of egg and often thats not good for health. But I guess thsi cake can be easily converted to eggless version. Increasing buttermilk content by another half and adding a little more oil.
The Girl Next Door
Tried it, ate it, shared it, everyone loved it! 🙂 Thank you for the recipe!
CHCooks
I should say this is the best compliment I have ever received TGND. I am glad you loved it 🙂
Renju
hi madam i have been following your blog for long,now i started following this food blog.this blog is really wonderful still i would like to request you to include step by step pictures of cooling as it will help beginners like us a lot
chcooks
Hi Renju 🙂 Warm welcome to my food blog 🙂
I have been trying to post step by step pictures, somehow its not working out. I will make it happen somehow 🙂