Lemon Cake

This Lemon Cake with a rosemary glaze is a moist and tender cake made with olive oil and polenta which soaks up the flavors and creates a unique texture and delightful indulgent taste.

Ingredients and substitutions for Lemon Cake

• Lemon: Verna lemons were most easy to source for this recipe, but honestly, any unwaxed lemon you have on hand works. You will want the skin to be as blemish free as possible for the zest.
• Sugar: The mixture of superfine or caster sugar and brown sugar gives sweetness for the lemon flavors to come to the fore. Icing or confectioner’s sugar is best in the glaze because it dissolves for glaze.
• Baking powder: This helps our cake rise so to create the nice light crumb and avoid a dense cake. Baking powder can expire, so it's best to check the best before date.
• Eggs: Room temperature eggs are essential to bind with the oil. This allows more air to be introduced and gives our cake that nice and light texture.
• Polenta: Ground cornmeal, the polenta helps create a really nice complimentary texture alongside the almond flour. You can substitute the polenta with semolina which will create a similar texture as the polenta.
• Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best for a nice light cake crumb.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Lemon Cake:

Step 1: Whip the eggs and sugar: Until fluffy.

Step 2: Flavors: Add the lemon juice, zest and olive oil.

Step 3: Dry ingredients: Place the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and stir together and add to the lemon mixture.

Step 4: Batter and bake: Combine until no dry patches remain and pour into your cake tin and bake until golden.

Step 5: Make the lemon soak: Whilst the cake bakes prepare the lemon soak, poke holes into the warm cake and brush over.

Step 6: Rosemary glaze: Stir the rosemary glaze together and pour over the still warm cake.

Step 7: Set and serve: Allow the cake to cool, slice and dig in!

FAQs for the best Lemon Cake

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Lemon Cake with Rosemary Glaze

Sylvie Taylor

This 6-inch Lemon Cake with Rosemary Glaze recipe might be small, but the lemon flavor paired with rosemary glaze makes it's a great snack cake to serve.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 8

Calories 390 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Cake

• 110 grams / 2 large eggs room temperature
• 50 grams / ¼ cup light brown sugar
• 50 grams / ¼ cup superfine/caster sugar
• 80 milliliters / ⅓ cup lemon juice 2 medium lemons
• 5 grams / 1 tablespoon lemon zest finely chopped
• 80 milliliters / ⅓ cup olive oil
• 175 grams / 1 cup + 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 50 grams / ½ cup ground almonds
• 80 grams / ½ cup polenta
• 4 grams / 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 5 grams / 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt

Lemon soak

• 45 grams / 3 tablespoons water
• 14 grams / 1 tablespoon superfine/caster sugar
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig
• 30 grams / 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Glaze

• 170 grams / 1 ½ cups confectioners/icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
• 45 grams / 3 tablespoons water

Instructions

 

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F and line a 15 cm or 6 inch round cake tin with parchment paper.
• Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes on medium with a hand beater.
• Add the lemon juice, zest and olive oil and beat until smooth and combined on medium, approximately 1 minute.
• In a separate bowl, place the flour, ground almonds, polenta, baking powder and soda and pinch of salt and stir to combine.
• Add the dry ingredients to the lemon mixture and beat on low until just combined.
• Pour into the prepared cake tin and tap the edges slightly to remove air bubbles from the mixture.
• Place in the oven and bake until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean, 30 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.

Lemon soak

• Place the water, sugar and rosemary sprig into a saucepan and simmer until it has reduced slightly and smells fragrent.
• Remove from the heat, take the sprig out and add the lemon juice to the rosemary soak, stirring to combine.
• Remove the cake carefully from the tin and while still warm, poke holes all over the top of the cake.
• Pour the soak mixture slowly and steadily over the cake while still warm.

Glaze

• For the rosemary glaze, place the confectioner's sugar, rosemary and water into a bowl and combine until smooth and silky.
• Pour onto the still warm cake so the icing melts into it, spreading the glaze on the sides with an offset spatula to cover over any patches.
• Allow to cool fully before serving.
• Slice and serve.

Notes

• Strong lemon flavor: The tart and zesty lemon flavor in this is quite strong, which is exactly how I like it, however, if you want it to be more subtle you could limit the amount of lemon juice to ¼ cup.
• Lemon: Verna lemons were most easy to source for this recipe, but honestly, any unwaxed lemon you have on hand works. You will want the skin to be as blemish free as possible for the zest.
• Cake tin: The round cake tin used here is on the smaller side, so the cake ends up higher. You can use a larger cake tin up to 20cm or 8 inches for a slice that isn't too flat.
• Rosemary taste in the glaze: The rosemary adds a subtle but distinct flavor to the glaze. It perfectly complements the tangy-sweet flavors of the lemon cake, creating a unique and delightful taste.

Recipe by Roamingtaste

Nutrition

Calories: 390kcal

Keyword cake, citrus, spring baking

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