Lemon Cake
Author:
Thomas Sixt is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.
You can find my simple lemon cake recipe in this post.
Baking the cake takes about 60 minutes.
You can use a loaf pan or a Bundt pan.
You can optionally add a fine lemon glaze or serve the cake sprinkled with powdered sugar.
I wish you good luck!
Table of Contents
1. Recipe Lemon Cake
Get the ingredients, get the cake pan ready, get the mixer and baking bowl ready and off you go.
Follow the clear step-by-step instructions.
You can send me questions about this baking recipe using the comment function at the bottom of the page.
Lemon Cake
Baked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt
Simple instructions for preparing juicy lemon cake.
Ingredients
| Lemon cake dough | ||
| 250 | g | brown cane sugar |
| 2 | Packet | vanilla sugar |
| 3 | Piece | Lemon |
| 1 | Pinches | primal salt |
| 5 | Piece | eggs |
| 250 | g | yoghurt |
| 350 | g | flour |
| 1 | tbsp. | Baking Powder |
| 100 | g | butter (for the cake pan) |
| Lemon frosting | ||
| 150 | g | icing sugar |
| 2 | tbsp. | fresh lemon (juice) |
| Decoration | ||
| 2 | tbsp. | Pistachios chopped |
Equipment
Instruction
Prepare ingredients
Have the ingredients ready at room temperature 30 minutes before preparing the dough.
Cake Tin
Choosing a cake pan:
-> Deep baking tray
-> box shape
-> Gugelhupf form
-> Muffin paper cups
Detail
I chose a special baking pan that draws a beautiful pattern on the cake after baking.
Prepare eggs
Crack the eggs into a clean bowl.
Prepare sugar
Place the sugar and vanilla sugar in a clean and dry bowl.
Add butter
Add the softened butter to the sugar and vanilla sugar.
Provide lemons
Provide lemons and grater. I got myself a Microplane grater, it’s worth buying.
Lemon zest
Grate the lemons carefully and precisely. Only grate the skin finely, because the white skin tastes bitter.
Add salt
Add some salt to the butter, sugar and lemon zest.
Prepare juice
Squeeze the juice from a grated lemon and set aside.
Butter cake pan
Grease the cake tin generously with softened butter.
Stir dough
Mix butter with sugar and lemon zest for 2-3 minutes.
Add eggs
Set aside the eggs to stir into the batter
Add eggs
Gradually stir in the eggs.
Add flour
Sift in the flour and stir the dough.
Remaining flour
Gradually stir in the remaining flour.
Add yoghurt
Add the yoghurt and stir in.
Add lemon juice
Add the lemon juice.
Check ingredients
Check again that all the prepared ingredients have found their way into the mixing bowl.
Mix dough
Finally mix the batter and prepare it for filling.
Fill in dough
Pour the cake batter into the cake pan(s).
Smooth out
Smooth out the batter in the cake pan.
Bake cake
Place the cake in the preheated oven at 180°C top and bottom heat.
Baking time
Bake the lemon cake for 25 minutes.
Watching cake
Observe the cake towards the end of the baking time and note the browning.
Do not open the oven until your cake shows a color comparable to that in the picture.
Chopstick sample
Pierce the cake with a wooden skewer.
No cake crumbs should stick to the wooden skewer.
Depending on the size of the dish, increase the baking time and repeat the test.
Remove cake
Remove the cake from the mold and let it cool down on a suitable surface.
Turn cake
Turn out the cake warm after 10 minutes.
Tumbled Lemon Pie
Let the cake cool down on a suitable board.
Prepare glazing
Place the cooled cake on a suitable grid with baking paper underneath.
Lemon Glaze Ingredients
Put the icing sugar in a bowl and prepare the lemon juice.
Finish the lemon glaze
Stir the lemon juice into the powdered sugar.
Apply cake frosting
Spread the cake icing over the cooled cake.
Decorate cake
Decorate moist cake frosting with chopped pistachios.
Alternatively, you can use roasted, finely chopped hazelnuts or almonds.
You can also sprinkle your cake with powdered sugar without lemon glaze.
Serve
Serve cake as desired and serve with coffee, tea or as a dessert.
Enjoy cake
Slice the cake and enjoy!
Video
Courses
Cousine
2. Calories And Nutritional Values
The calculated lemon cake calories are listed in the table below:
3. Lemon Cake Juicy
Is the smell of freshly baked cake already enticing you?
For a guaranteed juicy lemon cake, note the following tips:
Amount of ingredients for juicy lemon cake:
First of all, you should make sure to use the right amount of ingredients.
Accurately weighing the ingredients is essential. Use an accurate kitchen scale.
Many recipes contain too much flour, the amounts have to be precisely adjusted.
Too much sugar, too little butter or yoghurt can also make the cake dry.
Therefore, avoid using more or less than indicated.
Please process the ingredients at room temperature.
Egg and butter bind the dough. This is a good base for the juicy lemon cake.
Butter the cake tin generously for moist lemon cake:
Diligently and generously smearing the cake tin with butter is another step in making the succulent cake.
You can use a loaf tin, baking sheet, or Bundt pan. Cupcake and muffin baking tins are ideal for small cakes.
Plenty of butter on the pan keeps the cake batter moist while baking.
With this cake, avoid breadcrumbs, sprinkled in the cake pan after buttering. Breadcrumbs make the cake dry quickly.
Stick to the baking time: for guaranteed juicy lemon cake
The most common mistake when baking lemon cake is the wrong baking time.
Most of the time the cake is baked too long and too hot.
When using the baking tray and smaller molds, 25 minutes as the first baking time in a preheated oven is a good recommendation.
The cake has already risen well. You can poke the dough with a wooden skewer and check the consistency.
If there are still crumbs on the wooden skewer, the cake needs to be baked a little longer. 5 minutes baking time is sufficient.
Lemon frosting keeps lemon cake moist
The lemon frosting is a good idea for the best lemon cake in the world.
Glaze is poured over the cooled cake.
This layer of lemon juice and powdered sugar will add extra moisture to the cake and help retain moisture in the baked cake.
Mix a lot of powdered sugar with a little lemon juice.
I find it fascinating how much powdered sugar can be dissolved in relatively little lemon juice.
The glaze should not be too runny, then the perfect lemon layer forms on the cake.
Before the glaze dries, you can sprinkle pistachio slivers, finely chopped and roasted hazelnuts or flaked almonds or almond slivers.
4. Sheet Lemon Cake
The preparation of the cake on the baking tray is particularly practical and easy.
You need a deep baking tray for lemon sheet cake, which we also know as the fat pan.
The amount of ingredients given in the recipe above fills exactly one baking sheet.
Please butter the baking tray well as you would any other cake tin.
Use soft butter for this, liquid butter is unsuitable.
You could bake small cakes in muffin trays.
Paper cups are also an option, then the small cakes can be presented beautifully later.
5. Vegan Lemon Cake
You can make lemon cake without egg and butter.
I tested the cake, it tastes different than the original with egg and butter.
Ingredients vegan lemon cake:
220 g brown cane sugar
3 tbsp lemon zest
60 ml fresh lemon juice
250 g soy yoghurt (lemon or vanilla)
130 ml sunflower oil
Some Saffron (Optional)
300 grams of flour
3 tsp baking powder
Preparation of vegan lemon cake:
Mix the sugar with lemon zest and lemon juice in a baking bowl at high speed with a hand mixer, whisk, 3 minutes.
Add the soy yoghurt and mix for 30 seconds.
Add the saffron as an optional ingredient.
Slowly add the sunflower oil while stirring.
Add the baking powder to the flour and stir into the batter.
Use a silicone baking mold for this preparation:
Swirl the baking pan with cold water before filling it.
Pour in the batter and bake at 180°C for 40-50 minutes.
Notes on the baking time of vegan lemon cake:
The baking time will be shorter if you use a shallow or small pan.
If you don’t have a silicone baking pan, muffin paper cups are an alternative.
Please make sure to do the chopstick test with a wooden skewer and bake the cake exactly.
6. FAQ Bake Lemon Cake
I have summarized the most frequently asked questions about cakes below.
What do I look for when baking lemon cake with yogurt?
Yogurt is offered in the following product variants: Low-fat yogurt: 1.5%-1.8% fat. Yogurt: at least 3.5% fat. Cream yogurt (cream yogurt): at least 10% fat. Greek yogurt: fat content up to 10 percent. For the sponge cake with lemon, yogurt with a fat content of 10% has proven successful.
What is the difference between lemon cake vegan and baked with eggs and butter?
The cake with eggs and butter has a fluffier consistency. The cake tastes buttery and offers a harmonious, strong lemon flavor.
What do I look for when shopping for lemons?
For lemon cake you need the juice and zest of the citrus fruit. Buy organic lemon with untreated peel.
Can I prepare lemon cake in the Thermomix?
Place 250 g butter, 250 g sugar, 2 packets vanilla sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice of 3 lemons with 5 eggs in the mixing bowl.
Close the mixing bowl, mix for 20 seconds/step 4.
Add 250 g yogurt, 350 g flour and one tablespoon baking powder.
Close the mixing bowl, mix for 25 seconds/step 5.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Coat baking pan with plenty of butter, pour in batter and smooth out.
Bake cake for 25-30 minutes at 180°C.
Check for doneness and adjust baking time as needed.
When should I turn the lemon cake?
If you use a loaf pan, cake pan or springform pan, I recommend that you turn out or remove the pan after baking, when the cake has cooled to lukewarm.
If you use silicone molds, let the cake cool for at least 10 minutes and then turn it out of the mold.
Why don't you use lemon flavoring?
I avoid lemon flavoring and prefer to use more lemon zest for the sponge cake. Lemon zest and lemon juice are natural ingredients and make your cake extra flavorful.
Can I freeze lemon cake?
You can freeze lemon cake after it cools down. The quality of the fresh cake is better than the frozen one.
Is the Dr. Oetker lemon cake a good cake?
The cake from Dr. Oetker has been tested many times and takes into account in particular ingredients from the house of Dr. Oetker.
7. More Tested Cake Recipes
You can find more delicious cake recipes in my online baking book:
Easy Apple Pie Recipe
Fruit Cake Base Recipe for Your Easy German Sunday Cake
Chocolate Tart Recipe with Buckwheat
Plum Tarte Recipe for 3 Variations
Plum Crumble Recipe
Zwetschgendatschi Recipe for German Plum Cake
Plum Cake Recipe with Yeast Dough
Cake Pops Recipe
Preparing Cake Pops with Cake Leftovers
Marble Cake Muffins, on Request with Topping
Marble Cake with Glaze Recipe
Marble Cake Recipe
Rhubarb Cake in 2 Variations Recipe
Banana Cake, a simple Recipe with Nuts
Christmas Cake Recipe
New York Cheesecake Recipe
Plum Cake Recipe
Cherry Cake Recipe
Strawberry Tart Recipe
Apricot Tart Recipe for Small Cakes…
Lemon Tarte Recipe for fine Tarte au Citron
Clafoutis Cerises Recipe
Brownie Recipe – Easy to Prepare Juicy Cake with Chocolate
Blueberry Cake Recipe – a Fruit Cake with a quick Batter
Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers
Below you can write to me directly.
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