Lemon Cake

Lemon Cake

This recipe gives you a very subtle lemony taste in your cake. Neither too sweet nor tangy, a perfect balance of sweet and tartness.

Ingredients

§         Butter                – 110 gms

§         Sugar                – 150 gms

§         Milk                   – 100 ml

§         Flour (Maida)      – 200 gms

§         Baking powder    – 1.5 tsp

§         Salt                   – ¼ tsp (pinch of it)

§         Vanilla extract     – 1 tsp

§         Eggs                  – 2

§         Lemon zest         – 1 tbsp

§         Lemon juice        – 3 tbsp

§          

Method

1.      Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

2.      Grease the cake tin (baking dish) with butter and dust it with flour.

3.      Have the butter at room temperature. Beat the butter, lemon zest and sugar well till it’s light and soft in consistency. Since sugar is more than the amount of butter, the mixture will be thick. So don’t be hard in mixing the sugar and butter vigorously J …

4.      Now beat in eggs into the mixture. Add one egg at a time and beat well to have a smooth batter. The batter may get curdled. This is perfectly ok, but if you wish to have a smooth batter at this stage, refer the Tip * given below.

5.      In a separate bowl, sift in the dry ingredients – flour, salt and baking powder.

6.      Into the egg-sugar batter, beat in the flour mixture and milk (refer Tip ** given below).

7.      Lastly add the vanilla extract and the lemon juice. Mix well. Make sure to have a smooth batter.

8.      Pour in the batter into the baking dish.

9.      Pop in the baking dish into the oven and reduce the temperature to 160°C. Bake for 10 minutes and then increase the temperature to 180°C. (refer Tip *** given below).

10.  It will take about an hour (depending upon the capacity of the oven) for a well cooked spongy cake. (refer Tip **** given below)

Serving

Serve the cake slices with a dollop of fresh cream, topped with some fruits like strawberry, blueberries. Relish it with a cup of hot tea J

Tips

*   You can add a tea spoon of flour into the batter before mixing the second egg. This will help the batter not getting curdled

**  To have a smooth batter, add the flour mixture and milk in batches. Divide the flour mixture into 3 parts and milk into 2 parts. Mix the flour and milk alternatively into the egg-sugar batter. This will give you an even consistency and smoothness required.

***  Varying the temperature at the initial stage, ensures that the cake gets a gradual soft heat and once it is warm, let it cook at 180 degrees. The batter does not split and a smooth, evenly textured cake is resulted.

****  You can check its doneness by inserting a tooth-pick. If it comes out clean, its done. The top surface bounces a bit when pressed with the tip of a finger.

Try this recipe and share your comments and/or suggestions.