With a growing drift of snow on my thirteenth floor balcony and icicles dangling down from the fourteenth floor, winter isn’t relenting anytime soon. It’s the kind of bleak white day that makes me want to have a pot of stock simmering away for hours or bake something bright and sunny to warm the house and add a splash of color to my day.
Whether you’re caught up in the throes of life, or ensnared in the thick of winter, this Meyer lemon cake will brighten your day and put a smile on your face. Rich and buttery with a vibrant bouquet of citrus and the sweet tang of Meyer lemons, it’s moist, balanced and utterly delicious.
Best of all, it’s relatively straightforward and employs a few techniques to make it almost foolproof. I started with a basic pound cake batter, which tends to be both tasty and stable. To guarantee that it rises, I use a combination of baking soda and baking powder, which reacts with the acidic lemon juice and yogurt to give it some hefty lifting ability. Because I coat it with both a syrup and a glaze I cut back on the sugar in the batter itself to keep it from getting too sweet.
Then to ensure you don’t miss the lemon, I hit it with a triple dose of flavor. First, there’s the Meyer lemon juice and zest in the batter. Then I make a simple syrup with Meyer lemon juice and sugar, which gets poured onto the hot cake as it comes out of the oven. This not only allows you to infuse fresh lemon flavor into the cake, it also helps keep the cake moist for nearly a week. Lastly there’s the glaze, inspired by the scene outside, which hits the cake with a third dose of tart lemon on top.
What you get is a moist lemon cake, with a vivid yellow interior and snow-white cap that’s as colorful as it is flavorful. Slice it and serve it for brunch, or with a dollop of clotted cream as a delightful end to a Valentine’s Day dinner.
Units
Ingredients
for cake
- 195 grams all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 2.5 grams baking powder (about 1/2 teaspoon)
- 1.25 grams baking soda (about 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1.5 grams salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
- 113 grams cultured unsalted butter (8 tablespoons at room temperature)
- 150 grams granulated sugar (about 3/4 cup)
- 6 grams Meyer lemon zest (about 3 lemons finely grated)
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- 2 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
for syrup
- 50 grams granulated sugar (about 1/4 cup)
- ¼ cup Meyer lemon juice
for glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 - 3 teaspoons Meyer lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 8-inch by 4 1/4-inch loaf pan, or you can line it with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
- In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest for 5 minutes on medium speed.
- Add the 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixer and and mix until combined. Add 1/2 of the yogurt mixture and mix until combined. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the rest of the yogurt mixture and mix until combined. Finish by adding the remaining flour and mix until combined.
- Add the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 50-55 minutes).
- While the cake bakes, make the Meyer lemon simple syrup by mixing the sugar and lemon juice in a small nonreactive saucepan and heat while stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- When the cake is done, slowly pour or spoon the syrup over the cake while it is still hot. Make sure you let each addition of syrup soak in before adding more. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the glaze, whisk the powdered sugar together with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice until there are no lumps. The glaze should be thin enough to pour, but thick enough that it's not runny. Adjust the viscosity with more powdered sugar or lemon juice. Drizzle this over the cooled cake, allowing it to run down the sides. Let the glaze set before slicing and serving.
Nutrition
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Molly, I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure, but it should work in theory. Just be sure to wrap it in plenty of foil and plastic wrap (and perhaps put it in a freezer bag after that) so that it doesn’t pick up smells from your freezer.
Molly LaChance says
Thanks Marc for the quick response! I’m going to try it and I’ll let you know:)
Pam says
Can I freeze this loaf? If so, for how long?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Pam, yes you can, as for how long, it really depends on how well you wrap it as anything put in a freezer will start to get freezer burn over time. A few layers of plastic wrap and then putting the whole thing in a plastic container or freezer bag should make it a last a few months.
Pedro says
Made this recipe with regular lemons, and without the vanilla extract, and it turned out AMAZING! Absolutely delicious, everyone loved the cake. Thank you very much!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Pedro, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! This is one of my favorite cakes.
Anca Iorga says
Done! It was great! And I was sooo proud! Thank you, Mark!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Anca, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this!
violet says
hi i am a begginer cooker and wanted to know few tips and what level is this for
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Violet, making any cake require some degree of precision, so it’s probably not the easiest recipe to tackle, but it’s my hope that I’ve explained the steps well enough that even a beginner can make this. If you have troubles, I’d be happy to help you work through them, so please be sure to remember the details (a photo is always helpful).
violet says
do we hve to use the brand meyer
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Violet Meyer lemon isn’t a brand, it’s a cultivar of lemon. It’s less sour, and more fragrant than a Lisbon lemon, so if that’s all you can find in your area, you can substitute it, but your cake will probably end up a little more sour than intended.
Kathy Stroup says
I just made this with some of my bumper crop of Meyer lemons. It’s perfection! I can’t wait to share this around my neighborhood. And it was so easy! I know this was a long time ago and you like to say you’re not a baker, but you really nailed this!
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Kathy! I miss this cake, I used to make it a lot in the US but it’s so much harder to find Meyer lemons in Japan. I’m waiting for spring to plant something where my olive tree was but I’m heavily leaning towards Meyer lemons right now.
Kathy Stroup says
Well I hope I’m helping to persuade you! The only place we had trouble growing one was in Monterey; the weather never got warm enough. It’s such a pleasure to have unwaxed, organic fruit. I was just enjoying some preserved lemon juice in sparkling water -amazing! Since your neighbor has one you should be able to grow it. I realize that Japan has a lot of its own great citrus, but a Meyer is just so special!
Kathy Stroup says
😍My wish came true! Hope you enjoy them!
Kathy Stroup says
I found this today online: https://www.u-buy.jp/en/product/2I3FRGO-melissa-39-s-meyer-lemons-5lbs I don’t know if you think it’s worth it, but I thought I would share.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks for looking it up! I guess that’s not too bad for 5 pounds, but I don’t think it’s legal to import fresh fruit into Japan like that.
Kathy Stroup says
I’m not familiar with this company, but they are based in Japan. They add a customs fee at checkout. Not sure if the delivery fee is astronomical. It could be more complicated than they make it seem, but it really looked to me like they take care of the customs rules. Japan imports a lot of produce from the U.S., so it’s not unheard of. When I first saw it I thought it was a company that had the fruit in Japan for sale. Ah, well. I’m just in Meyer Heaven here and wishing you could be, too!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Kathy, I’m fairly certain this is not a Japanese company. If you look at the reviews, none of them are in Japanese, and doing a search in Japanese about the company on google turns up only a few results about it being a scam site. Their about page page says it was founded in Kuwait and it looks like they have some kind of drop shipping business model (i.e. they don’t actually maintain their own warehouses). As for the customs fee, this is just to pay duties on the shipped products and wouldn’t get around any rules about importing fruit. Japan does import a lot of fruit from the US, but importers (such as Costco) get the proper quarantine and inspections done as part of the process of importing the products. This company looks like they just ship individual orders internationally via regular mail.
Kathy Stroup says
😥Sure wish there weren’t so many scammers in the world. They’ve gone rampant recently. Oh well, maybe Costco or another big store will have them soon. I made another batch of this and baked it in mini loaves to share with my neighbors. They loved it! Thanks again for the recipe!😊
Marc Matsumoto says
I don’t think I’ve seen them at Costco, but we do get them sometimes in summer at the supermarket imported from New Zealand. Crazy coincidence, but a neighbor just dropped by a few minutes ago with a couple Meyer lemons!