Zesty!

We had the most marvelous evening with friends last night. So much needed that even as we were walking from the car to their front door, I was already giggling -- even BEFORE I had the wine -- and I daresay I have not giggled in a few days. We opened the bottle of the Little Black Dress wine that I mentioned the other day/week/whatever, and I must say it went down quite nicely. We had lots of laughs and lots of strategy talk and lots of gossip. Just.about.perfect!!!!  

My friend Chris claims to not be much of a baker, but she served us some delicious lemon cake. Her only problem with it is that she says it's not rising as much as it should. This is her third try, and she was about to throw away the recipe.  

That's my crappy Blackberry photo of it. It's out of focus, but it tasted REALLY GREAT. Very lemony and almost shortbready for the cake part -- couldn't be better, in my book.  But she'd like it to look more like it looks in the photo in the magazine where she got the recipe -- it is considerably thicker in that photo. She said she tried new baking powder and baking soda, with no change.  

I told her no, don't throw away the recipe!  It was really too delicious. Let me see if some of the master bakers who read my blog can try it and see if it works out, or if indeed there is a mistake in the recipe. (Recipe appears in Victoria magazine, September 2002) 

Here it is:

Meyer Lemon Cake

1 1/2 sticks softened unsalted butter

1 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1 T. Meyer lemon zest

3 T. Meyer lemon juice

1 t. vanilla or lemon extract

1 c. unsifted all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/8 t. salt

1/3 c. sour cream

 

For the decorative icing: 

1 c. confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 to 2 T. fresh lemon juice

 

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a deep 9-inch cake pan or coat it with vegetable cooking spray.

In a bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract.  Into another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the liquid, stirring until well incorporated.  Stir in the sour cream and blend well. 

Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for 30-40 mins. or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. let cool in the pan for 5 mins. and invert it onto a rack to cool completely.

Make the icing:  Into a bowl, sift the confectioners' sugar.  Add 1 1/2 T of the lemon juice and stir the mixture until smooth and glossy, adding more lemon juice if necessary. Drizzle the icing over the cake and let dry before serving.  

 

Comments

[Kristen]

I haven't tried it, but just by eyeballing it I can tell that it would make a fairly dense cake, more like a poundcake. I'd think it would be taller than what it seems to be in your picture though.

[Mel]

It looks like there should be plenty of leavening between the eggs and the baking soda & powder, but the ratio of wet to dry ingredients and the amount of fat in it will definitely make a very dense cake.

I do see that it calls for unsifted flour, which is going to be fairly compacted. I wonder if using 2c. of sifted flour might make a difference. It would make a somewhat thicker batter, but the added gluten might allow it to rise higher.

Also, you just can't trust magazine photos to reflect the published recipe. It's very much like when fashion or knitting magazines put the small size garment on the extra small, skinny bitch model to make you think that's how it'll fit on you. If it's good, maybe it doesn't need fixing.

[Carole]

That doesn't seem like much flour to me. Has she tried looking for similar recipes and seeing if the ingredient amounts change? That's what I would do.

[Seanna Lea]

I will try the recipe today, because I love lemon. A lot of the cakes I have that use baking soda for part of their leavening (with an acid to help rise) benefit from mixing quick and putting them in the oven before the acid-baking soda reaction is over.

[gayle]

I'll have to try out the recipe (mmmm lemon,) but at a quick read, I'd add a quarter cup of flour and a couple of tablespoons of milk. If that didn't work, I'd up the baking soda by 1/4 teaspoon - there's a lot of acid present here.
I'm starting to picture a series of lemon cakes lined up in my kitchen...

[Dcuddy]

There is not much flour in this recipe. I have made the Meyer Lemon Cake from the Victoria March/April 2009 issue. It makes two pound cakes and is delicious.

[Carol]

I'd sift the flour also and keep mixing to a minimum. Fold the ingredients in softly and put right in the oven.

[Robby]

I agree the amount of flour doesn't seem sufficient to support the amount of fat in the recipe. She could try weighing the flour since it is notoriously hard to measure it exactly as someone else has by volume. 1 c AP flour = 4.5 oz. I also agree about magazine pictures fibbing extravagantly. May have to try this it sounds very tasty.

[marianne]

hmmmm. mercy I do love all things lemon.
I'd increase the flour to 1.5 to 2 C, increase the baking powder and soda each to either 3/4 tsp to 1 tsp. hell, I might even add an extra egg. or not. actually 2 eggs look to be enough.

[Lucia]

Another possibility is to try beating the eggs up separately, or with the sugar, then adding the butter. Frothy eggs can leaven things quite a bit. (Which is why when making brownies I don't beat the eggs nearly as much as called for, because I want dense brownies.)

But I'm with Mel on magazine/book photos: the real thing never looks quite as good, and if it's yummy, maybe it shouldn't be messed with. I can testify from the time before I learned the secret of pie crust that something can look like the proverbial feline offering and yet be scrumptious.

[Erika]

I think the density and ratio of the ingredients is right for an awesome dense tart/shortbread dessert.

But think of it this way: how much cake are you going to get out of only 1c flour?

My guess is that the one in the magazine picture was simply cooked in a smaller pan. Or that they baked 2, and set one atop the other - possibly on the sly.

[Erika]

Oh, although you can always get a little bit more mileage out of your eggs by letting them come up to room temperature. Eggs should always be room temperature for baking - something about the flexibility of the protein strands or some other such chemistry talk.

[Cookie]

I agree with everyone else. I wonder about the temp of her butter when she did her mixing. Also the temp of her eggs. Sometimes the tiniest thing can change everything when it comes to baking.

[Kitten]

Never give away a lemon cake recipe. I don't care what it looks like when it's done.

[Angie L.]

Way, way, too much butter. That sort of butter to flour ratio is good for brownies, and other chewy bars. In this recipe the butter should only be about a third of a cup. I would even try one fourth cup. Also, oil instead of butter would make it more moist.

[Elizabeth L in Apex, NC]

I see that Gayle has mentioned this... but I don't think there is enough baking soda for the amount of acid in this recipe. Between the sour cream and lemon, I'd try increasing the amount of soda significantly. Maybe double it for the first attempt.

Also, I have a pound cake recipe that calls for unsifted flour and, because I beat the eggs in 3-5 minutes each (depending on how distracted I get!), it is quite lofty and delicate. Maybe extra beating time on the eggs along with more soda will do it.

I'd keep adding more flour until the very last resort! And I can't wait to try this one, too. I wonder if fresh limes will work...

[elizabeth a airhart]

perhaps the bakeing powder or the
soda were not quite active or fresh

[Jan]

Since I love-love anything lemony, I decided to try this cake last night. I'm a pretty good cook, though not an expert, by any means, and I had all the ingredients on hand, so why not?

I followed the recipe exactly as written, measuring all ingredients, precisely. My pan was a 9-inch round cake pan, about 2 inches high.

First of all, the batter was scrumptious looking and tasting. I had high hopes. The cake began to rise, and over-flowed the pan. Most of the batter ended up on the bottom of my oven. When the cake browned slightly on top, and cooled in the pan, I couldn't release it. The texture was more of a sponge cake, but very wet, even after 40 minutes. I don't believe more time would have helped. I think something is wrong with the recipe. I'll be eager to hear other comments.

I follow recipes from magazines and online recipes all the time, and I'm almost always successful. The cake had a nice lemony aroma, but other than that, it was not good to eat or serve.

[Renee]

I'll give it a try and see what happens.
Sounds delicious.

[Paula]

It's hard to tell from your photo, but perhaps the pan was shallower and wider than specified? That would make a big difference in the depth of the cake.

[Lora]

When adding the eggs, do so one at a time and beat for a minimum of 1 minute after each one - and even a little longer if you want. That will help with the rise of the cake.

[Elizabeth]

I think I want the lemony shortbread version as pictured but there's no way I'd use that much butter.
I was going to make a apple cake (http://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/02/apple-cake.html) today but..mmm.
I have had hit and miss results with magazine recipes but Victoria's usually work. Using cake flour makes a difference too although it's hard to find unbleached.

[Carrie#K]

I'll have to try that with the meyer lemons off the tree this year. It sounds yummy.

[Robin]

Keep it the way it is. A friend made a failed (according to the recipe photo) cheesecake and we loved it and requested the "flat cheesecake" often - but then she finally made it look like the photo -- and it wasn't as good. Don't mess with yumminess.

[Christina]

I just discovered your blog through the red scarf project. So glad I did. I love this project. I want to make the lemon cake. Dance your Chemistry is Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Boy Toys = Hilarious!