This is a cake that I like to make when I make my Shaved Asparagus Salad - for the simple reason that the salad calls for lemon juice from about 3 lemons, and this cake calls for the zest from 3 lemons. No waste.
The other reason that I love making this cake comes directly from the description in the book "Baking with Julia": This cake is a fooler: Its texture is that of a classic pound cake, moist, firm, and tightly knit, but it's made in just five minutes using the same sponge technique you'd draw on for almost-weightless genoise." A cheater pound cake - sign me up!
For our Book Club dinner, we served it with a very generous dollop of freshly whipped cream and just-plucked blackberries - a lovely combination of sweetness, tartness, and texture.
Lemon Tea Cake
- 4 large eggs, at room temp
- 1 1/3 C. sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Grated zest of 3 large lemons
- 1 1/3 C. cake flour
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 C. heavy cream, at room temp
- 5 1/2 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
Butter a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.
Whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt for just a minute, until foamy and smoothly blended; the mixture should not thicken.
Whisk in the grated zest.
Spoon the flour and baking powder into a sifter and sift about a third of the dry ingredients over the foamy egg mixture. Whisk the flour into the eggs, mixing lightly - there is no need to beat. Sift the flour over the eggs in two more additions and whisk only until everything is incorporated.
Whisk the heavy cream into the mixture.
Switch to a rubber spatula and gently and quickly fold in the melted butter.
Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan - it will level out - and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the center of the cake crowns and cracks and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the cake to a cooling rack to rest for 10 minutes before unmolding. Cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.
