You simply cannot have enough lemon flavor, as far as I am concerned. I was craving a lemony dessert, so I pulled out my recipe for Lemon Loaf Cake from the book "Baking with Julia", based on her PBS series, which I have made before. It uses a lot of lemon zest, and is fairly quick and easy - no mixer necessary. I add poppy seeds since I always have them in my pantry, and I like the way they look.
One thing that always bugs me about the recipe is that you use all of this zest, but then you have 3 naked lemons sitting there, going to waste. So I went online and found a recipe from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, for lemon syrup and lemon glaze, which used up exactly the amount of lemon juice that I had left. While the cake was still hot, I added the lemon syrup to soak in, and then when it cooled I added the glaze. It was exactly what it needed!
This cake is great for dessert, toasted for breakfast, or served in small slices for tea. It would make a lovely hostess gift as well.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 1/3 C. sugar (I use superfine baker's sugar)
- Pinch of salt
- Grated Zest of 3 large lemons
- 1 3/4 C. cake flour
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 C. heavy cream, at room temperature
- 5 1/2 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 T. poppy seeds
- Syrup: 1/3 C. lemon juice and 1/3 C. sugar
- Glaze: 3 T. lemon juice and 1 C. powdered sugar
- Butter a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess
- Whisk together eggs, sugar, and salt for just a minute, until foamy and smoothly blended. Whisk in the grated zest.
- Spoon the four and baking powder into a sifter, and sift about 1/3 of the dry ingredients over the foamy egg mixture. Whisk the flour into the eggs, mixing lightly - no need to beat. Sift the flour over the eggs in 2 more additions, and whisk only until everything is incorporated.
- Whisk the heavy cream into the mixture.
- Switch to a rubber spatula and quickly fold in the melted butter and poppy seeds.
- Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 - 60 min.
- Remove the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for 10 minutes before unmolding.
- While the cake is cooling, heat the lemon juice and sugar in a pot until incorporated to make a syrup.
- Unmold the cake to the cooling rack with a tray underneath.
- Poke holes into the top of the cake with a toothpick
- Spoon lemon syrup on top of cake.
- Allow cake to cool. Meanwhile, mix the 3 T. lemon juice and confectioners sugar together. You may need to add a little water or more sugar to get the right consistency.
- Spoon glaze all over the cooled cake, allowing it to drip down the sides.
