Name: Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 200 grams butter (soft); 165 grams white sugar ((caster or granulated)); 225 grams plain flour ((standard grade or all-purpose flour)); 3 eggs; ½ tsp salt; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 2 tsp baking powder; zest of 1 lemon; juice of a lemon ((about 2 tbsp)); 150 grams icing sugar; zest of lemon; juice of a lemon ((about 2 tbsp)); 1 tbsp milk or water ((may be needed depending on consistency of the glaze))

Jun 15, 2021 · Modified: Apr 3, 2022 by Mary-Lou · This post may contain affiliate links ·

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A fresh zesty lemon cake topped with an even zestier lemon glaze. Because when life gives you lemons...make a lemon cake.

I'm not sure why we bought lemons. But we did. They were taunting me from the fruit basket. Life has somehow literally given me lemons.

Winter or meteorological winter started on the 1st of June. Since then it has been rather gloomy. When the morning alarm goes off it's dark, and the last few days it has been foggy, the air thick with moisture, rain falling every now and then.

Life gave me lemons and I was determined to turn it into a cake of some sort. I wanted to make a cream cheese lemon pound cake, and when the cake stuck to the pan that I liberally greased and prepared, I decided to pivot away from the cream cheese. Go back to basics. Because obviously - the Universe was telling me to move in another direction.

And what was born was a delightful zesty, intensely yellow lemon cake with a lemony glaze. Perfect for the winter blues.

Ingredients for the Lemon Cake and Lemon Glaze

Butter adds flavour as well as structure and lightness during the creaming process.

Caster sugar for sweetness, and plays a role in the creaming of the butter. This can be substituted with granulated white sugar. This recipe calls for 165 grams of sugar and doesn't result in a very sweet cake itself.

Flour - standard grade / plain or all-purpose flour.

Milk add moisture. I suggest a full cream, standard, or whole milk.

Eggs - three eggs bind the cake together and also add moisture.

Baking powder to give rise. There are no acidic ingredients so baking soda would not be appropriate. A baking powder substitute would be 1 teaspoon of baking soda plus 4 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar mixed into the wet ingredients. Or 1 teaspoon of baking soda and ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar.

Lemon Juice and Zest are crucial to the lemony flavour of this cake.

Salt and vanilla extract add to the flavour the cake, and give the glaze a delightful fresh and zesty tang.

Icing Sugar - adds sweetness to the cake in the form of the glaze. The cake is not a very sweet cake and punched up with this glaze.

Lemon Cake Ingredients - eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, lemons and butter

Making the Lemon Cake

Before you start baking - take all your ingredients out of the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature for about an hour. This is specifically a requirement for the cake batter.

However, with the weather being rather cool here in Christchurch, I am finding that room temperature is still too cold for baking. For this explicit reason, just before I cream the butter, I do like to pop it into the microwave for short 10 second bursts to get that soft butter I need. For eggs - pop them into some warm (not hot!) water.

This lemon cake is really pretty easy to put together. It begins with the creaming of the butter, then adding in the sugar, vanilla and salt to form a light fluffy buttery base. Make sure to take your time when creaming. The butter should turn from yellow into a pale pastel yellow when the creaming is done.

Once you have added the eggs in and have a nice light fluffy base. I find it best to fold in the flour, lemon juice, zest and baking powder.

Pour or scoop your filling into a prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes.

Lemon Cake Batter being poured into a prepared cake tin

Making the Lemon Glaze

Making the glaze is really simple - mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice until smooth and shiny. I like to keep a bit of my zest for a little decor, but the zest can be incorporated into the glaze.

How to Zest a Lemon

Lemon zest refers to the thin outer coloured layer of the lemon that filled with flavourful citrus oils.

To obtain the zest, you can use a Microplane, vegetable peeler, grater or zesting tool to essentially scrape off the outer portion of the lemon. Try to avoid the pith (white part) as this is fairly bitter and doesn't add in any flavour.

Here is an in depth tutorial for zesting lemons.

How to juice a lemon

After I've removed the zest from my lemons, I place them on the kitchen counter or chopping board and roll them applying a decent amount of pressure to break the segments and pulp inside the lemon.

Then I slice them in half and squeeze them using my hand over a small sieve to catch any pips or seeds.

You can also use any sort of juicer but I don't like creating additional dishes...even though I don't wash the majority of the dishes in the house.

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Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients for the Lemon Cake and Lemon Glaze

Making the Lemon Cake

Making the Lemon Glaze

How to Zest a Lemon

How to juice a lemon

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