Lemon Loaf Cake – Baking with Julia
Lemon Loaf Cake is next on the roster for our group bake. Two weeks have flown and it is time for our next installment of blogging with Tuesday’s with Dorie.
The cake we are baking today is both quick bread and pound cake. It goes together quite easily but requires some attention to detail.
Mise en place is a good thing to have in place for this recipe.
Be sure to bring your eggs to room temperature, to zest your lemons, and to have your butter melted and cooling BEFORE starting to mix your cake together. Also, have your flour and baking powder sifted and in a separate bowl.
The recipe calls for cake flour. Please, do yourself a favor and do not substitute this ingredient. While all-purpose flour can be used, you will not get the results that Flo Braker intended. We are going for CAKE not BREAD.
When combining the eggs, sugar and salt, only whisk until combined. No need to use your stand mixer.
Add your sifted, dry ingredients to the egg mixture in three portions. This will ensure that the flour is properly coated with egg and fat to create a proper crumb. Again, only whisk until the flour is absorbed.
Whisk in the heavy cream…
Then fold in the melted and cooled butter…
Pour the wet batter into your prepared pan and bake. Check your loaf at 50 minutes. If it still seems too soft at this point, increase baking time in 5 minute intervals. It is REALLY easy to over bake this cake.
The complete recipe can be found on pages 252 and 253 of Baking with Julia written by Dorie Greenspan. Our hosts this week are Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life, where you can also find the full recipe.
This lemony loaf is somewhat firm, lending itself to toasting and grilling as well as enjoying as is with perhaps a cup of tea. It inspired me to try a variation which I will post in a day or two so be sure and check back to see what I did to switch up the recipe a bit.
Very nice – and I agree, this is a recipe where using cake flour makes a difference.
I like your little lemon hearts. They look great with the glaze. I did actually bake this a second time and used a lemon glaze on mine too. It really brought out the “lemoniness” of the cake.
You are so right…I did over bake mine a bit and I should have known better. Your cake has a really nice crumb. Very good pictures. I tried to get some of the same views, but wasn’t as successful as you were.
Hi Anne, I actually baked the cake a second time to monitor the time and make a couple of other changes and it was still soupy at 50, not quite ready @ 55 and pretty dark brown by 60. Baking and blogging takes a lot of work so I am really glad you posted.
I love just about any dessert with lemons in it – this cake looks wonderful. I will have to give the recipe a whirl!
Yummy, right? I have another version I am going to post in a few days. Wait and try that one…