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.
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)
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 2 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon
for syrup
- 50 grams granulated sugar (about 1/4 cup)
- 1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
for glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 - 3 teaspoons Meyer lemon juice
Steps
- 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.
I like the idea of using yogurt instead of cream cheese or mascapone. Lighter. It’s snowing here in Swizzyland and this looks like the perfect pick-me-up after skiing. 🙂
Mmmh lemon drizzle cake.. My Meyer’s lemons are still green as grass. I am nursing a small tree in the greenery to have some of my own and there are only two on that small tree (no fresh fruits or juice available). I wish I would live in a warmer climate…
Another good one. Can’t wait to make this over the weekend. I have lots of Meyer Lon’s on my tree.
How necessary is the stand mixer? I don’t have one but this sounds delicious and I’d love to make it…
Hi Andrea, while you could use a whisk to cream the butter, it will probably take you about 10 minutes of hand whipping to get it there. Once that’s done the flour and egg mixtures can get folded in with a spatula. If you have a hand mixer, that might make the butter whipping easier.
Hi ! I just tried this recipe and the flavour is awesome !! However, the cake itself was quite brown (but not over baked though, just dark). Can the type of lemon cause the “browning” ? I used unwaxed yellow lemons, but I dont think they were Meyers …. Thanks !!
Hi Martin, have you calibrated your oven recently? It’s possible that your oven runs a little hot in which case you can try lowering the temperature a little bit. Also, the times and temperatures are for a conventional oven, if you have a convection oven or combi oven, the times and temps may be different.
This is a wonderful recipe. I made it just as specified and it was great. As an extra addition (even though the cake can stand on it’s own), instead of a dollop of ice cream, I made the following: 3/4 cup crema (Mexican variety which has some thickener), 1/4 cup mascarpone, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice and 3 tablespoons fresh strawberry juice. My son claims that the balance between the cake and the sauce made it a hit.
That sounds like an awesome idea! Love the combo of lemons and strawberries. We can’t get crema here, but I’m gonna have to try it with some clotted cream.
This was great for my tea party. Everyone enjoyed the freshness of the lemons and strawberry together, Marc, when I was a kid my mom used to make date nut bars for us or would purchase a box of Date Bars Mix make by Betty Crocker and suggestion, by the way the crust was light, crumbly and needed not to be bake firstm, then we add the date nut mix, HELP
SILKY 674
Hi Pauletta, they sound awesome, but I don’t think I’ve ever had one before. Is it like a mincemeat pie or more like and energy bar?
Have you tried this in a bundt pan?
Hi Carol, I haven’t. You may need to adjust the amount of batter but it should work.— Sent from Mailbox for iPhone
I accidentally bought whole wheat pastry flour and it turned out more like a lemon bread/cake but it was seriously delicious. I also used a hand mixer, seemed to work out fine.
What a flop! Literally. I recently made an orange loaf and then yesterday made this iced lemon cake with Meyer Lemons. The thing they had in common is pouring a syrup over them. I believe that was the wrong move for both. I had baked both for plenty of time and tested them with a toothpick and they seemed done. Both were high in the pan. But, when the syrup was added they flopped and after they cooled both seemed somewhat uncooked inside. I think it was from the syrup. I think because they flopped the taste was affected. I’ll… Read more »
Hi Cthebird, by “flop” do you mean it rose and then fell? If so, there are two possibilities. The first is that the cake was not fully cooked, but since you tested it, that probably isn’t the problem. The second is that you added the syrup too quickly. If the syrup pools (either on top or at the bottom of the loaf pan, it will not soak evenly into the cake and you’ll end up with areas where the cake gets mushy. If you pour it you need a slow steady drizzle while moving the stream around the cake so… Read more »
I finally made this with. The last of the Meyer lemons from last year’s crop. Excellent recipe!
As far as taste goes, is it very citrus-y or mild? I was looking at the recipe and 2 tbs of lemon juice seemed a little low for the cake itself, though it is also incorporated into the other elements.
Hi sd, the cake gets it’s flavor from the zest, but the syrup and glaze give it a double dose of lemon that makes it pretty tart.— Sent from Mailbox
Is it okay to use any other lemons? Not sure I can find Meyer lemons in my town 🙁
Regular lemons will make it more tart, and it won’t have the same fragrance, but they will work just fine:-)
Wow – this looks awesome. Making this for Thanksgiving to help me use up some of our Meyer Lemon crop. Thanks, Marc!
This cake is DELICIOUS, I’ve made it twice now in a span of just a few weeks. But- I have some suggestions. It helps if you use a barbeque/wooden skewer to poke 10-15 holes in the warm cake and then pour on the syrup. The syrup distributes evenly throughout the cake that way and keeps it moist. You will not notice the small “holes” in the cake, especially with the glaze on top. Also, the simple syrup needs to come to a high simmer for a couple of minutes and be kept on the heat beyond the time it takes… Read more »
Hi Kate I’m glad to hear you enjoyed and thanks for the great tips!
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Hi Marc, is this cake too firm texture-wise for it to be a birthday cake? I’m thinking to bake in one 8 inch cake pan. what do you think?
Hi Miyuki, it depends on what you consider too firm. It’s certainly not a sponge cake, and the syrup makes the already dense pound cake even more so, but I certainly would not mind being served this cake iced with some lemon buttercream for my birthday.
Made it today with regular lemon, it was delicious!The only problem is to stop yourself from inhaling the whole cake! 🙂
Hi Marc, made this tonight with my gluten free flour mix o
Hi Marc, made this tonight with my gluten free flour mix of white and brown rice, tapioca and potato flours and some xantham gum and it turned out beautifully! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Marc, thinking about making this for a brunch I’m having in a couple of weeks. Do you think I could freeze it without the glaze and then defrost and add that day of?
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.
Thanks Marc for the quick response! I’m going to try it and I’ll let you know:)
Can I freeze this loaf? If so, for how long?
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.
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!
Hi Pedro, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! This is one of my favorite cakes.