If you love lemon cake, you’ll adore this zesty number – citrus runs through the sponge, syrup and icing
Diana Henry The Telegraph's award-winning cookery writer
Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.
See more
Published
I’ve made lots of lemon cakes over the years – simple ones baked in a loaf tin, round ones filled with lemon curd and covered in buttercream icing. I wanted to make one that was intensely lemony, a bit more grown-up than most. This is it. You don’t have to ice this cake – the icing does make it sweeter.
If you prefer a more mouth-puckering lemon experience, dust the top with icing sugar before serving it and leave it at that.
Overview
Prep time
30 mins
Cook time
1 hr
Serves
10
Ingredients
- zest of 2 lemons, removed with a zester
- 200g granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 75g butter, melted and left to cool
- 200g plain flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 150g sour cream
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
For the syrup
- juice of 2 small lemons or 1½ large ones
- 50g granulated sugar
For the icing
- 135g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- half-slices of lemon, to decorate (optional)
Method
Step
Preheat the oven to 170C/160C fan/gas mark 3½.
Step
Butter a 12 x 22cm loaf tin and line the base with baking parchment, allowing the ends of the parchment to hang over the short ends of the tin.
Step
Put the zest of 2 lemons into a large mortar and pestle with 100g of the granulated sugar. Pound this, then add the remaining 100g granulated sugar and continue pounding (do this in batches if necessary). This will give you deliciously lemon-flavoured sugar.
Step
Beat the sugar and 3 large lightly beaten eggs together in a food mixer until the mixture is light and thick and your beaters leave a trail when you lift them.
Step
Add 75g melted and cooled butter. When you remove the beaters make sure you’re not leaving any zest on them.
Step
Combine 200g plain flour, a pinch of salt and 1½ tsp baking powder.
Step
Fold this into the egg mixture in 3 lots, alternating with 150g sour cream. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice.
Step
Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50-55 minutes. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.
Step
Put the juice of 2 small or 1½ large lemons and 50g granulated sugar for the syrup into a small pan. Bring to just under the boil then stir the mixture to help the sugar dissolve.
Step
Leave the cake for 10 minutes, then run a knife round the inside of the tin. Lift it out and remove the paper. Make holes all over the top of the sponge with a skewer, then carefully turn the cake over and pierce the base as well.
Step
Slowly pour half of the syrup into the holes in the top and let it sink in. Leave for 10 minutes then turn the cake over and do the same thing on the bottom, taking your time so that you can be sure the syrup is going in.
Step
Turn the cake the right way up and leave until it is cool.
Step
Sift 135g icing sugar for the glaze and stir in 2 tbsp lemon juice. The mixture should be smooth. Leave to firm up a little – but don’t let it set – then drizzle this over the cake, decorating it with half-slices of lemon if you like.