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.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
for cake
- 195 grams all-purpose flour (about 1 ½ cups)
- 2.5 grams baking powder (about ½ teaspoon)
- 1.25 grams baking soda (about ¼ teaspoon)
- 1.5 grams salt (about ¼ teaspoon)
- 113 grams cultured unsalted butter (8 tablespoons at room temperature)
- 150 grams granulated sugar (about ¾ 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 ¼ 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 ¼-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 ⅓ of the flour mixture to the mixer and and mix until combined. Add ½ of the yogurt mixture and mix until combined. Add another ⅓ 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.
Marc Matsumoto says
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 that it's never pooling in one spot. You could also try spooning the syrup on (or using a pastry brush). Either way, it should take you a few minutes to use up all the syrup.
recipetried says
I finally made this with. The last of the Meyer lemons from last year's crop. Excellent recipe!
SD says
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.
Steven says
Myer Lemons are very intense, and you’re also using the zest of three Myer lemons. I’m sure you could add more but sounds like it’s going to be very lemony on its own, then you add the lemon syrup to and and the glaze. Sounds perfect.
Marc Matsumoto says
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
Amanda says
Is it okay to use any other lemons? Not sure I can find Meyer lemons in my town 🙁
Marc Matsumoto says
Regular lemons will make it more tart, and it won't have the same fragrance, but they will work just fine:-)
MaryMary, Houston, TX says
Wow - this looks awesome. Making this for Thanksgiving to help me use up some of our Meyer Lemon crop. Thanks, Marc!
Kate says
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 just for the sugar to melt into the lemon juice.
Finally, if you only have 3 lemons for this cake- zest the lemons and cream the zest with the butter BEFORE adding lemon juice to the yogurt/egg mixture (swap the first 2 parts of step 3). Once the lemons are juiced- you can't zest them.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Kate I’m glad to hear you enjoyed and thanks for the great tips!
—
Sent from Mailbox
Yuki says
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?
Marc Matsumoto says
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.
Maramerlo says
Made it today with regular lemon, it was delicious!The only problem is to stop yourself from inhaling the whole cake! 🙂
Valerie Santanello says
Hi Marc, made this tonight with my gluten free flour mix o
Valerie Santanello says
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!
Molly LaChance says
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?