It’s been a fairly mild winter here in the Yarra Valley, so our lemon trees have been producing more fruit than past seasons. An array of lemony desserts and treats have been coming out of the Foothills kitchen, and we’re definitely not complaining! Whilst we’ve been developing new recipes during Covid-19 restrictions, sometimes we crave the classics. Using home-grown, Yarra Valley lemons and pantry ingredients, our lemon loaf cake is tender, moist, and oh-so-delicious. It’s the perfect accompaniment to any afternoon tea and can be whipped up in no time at all. Time to get the kettle on!
Lemon Loaf Cake
INGREDIENTS
For the cake
- 190g plain flour (sifted)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 165g butter
- 250g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 130ml milk
For the glaze (optional)
- 100g icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Lemon zest to garnish (optional)
DIRECTIONS
The cake
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 8 x 20cm loaf tin.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
- Using an electric hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then add lemon zest and lemon juice, and mix until just combined. The batter may look curdled at this point, but this is perfectly normal — just move onto the next step!
- With the mixer on the lowest setting, add one third of the flour mixture followed by half of the milk. Repeat letting each ingredient mix until mostly incorporated. Finish by adding the last third of flour mixture and mix just until combined. Be careful not to overmix.
- Pour cake batter into prepared loaf tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then use the baking paper to lift the pound cake out of its tin and transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
The glaze
- Whisk together the icing sugar and fresh lemon juice until it’s no longer clumpy and can be drizzled. You may need to add more lemon juice to reach this consistency.
- Once the cake has cooled, spoon the glaze over cake, add fresh lemon zest to garnish, and serve.
