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.
While you have the oven on, my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread makes a lovely companion for this bright and sunny loaf. The rich chocolate and sweet banana make a delicious foil to the bright acidity of this citrusy cake.
📖 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.
Karen says
I just made this tonight. Baking is my least favourite part of cooking, but I found myself with three meyer lemons to use up and stumbled on this recipe. The only adjustment I made was solely based on the fact that I only had vanilla skyr yogurt in the fridge and that's what got used. I'm still not confident enough to say that I can bake, but this lemon cake quite simply "takes the cake" and made me look good with my husband who loves lemon loaf. Thanks!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Karen, I'm happy to hear you and your husband enjoyed this! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
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!
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.
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).
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!
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.
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.
Molly LaChance says
Thanks Marc for the quick response! I'm going to try it and I'll let you know:)
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
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?
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!
Valerie Santanello says
Hi Marc, made this tonight with my gluten free flour mix o
Maramerlo says
Made it today with regular lemon, it was delicious!The only problem is to stop yourself from inhaling the whole cake! 🙂
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.
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 Kate I’m glad to hear you enjoyed and thanks for the great tips!
—
Sent from Mailbox
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.
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!
Marc Matsumoto says
Regular lemons will make it more tart, and it won't have the same fragrance, but they will work just fine:-)
Amanda says
Is it okay to use any other lemons? Not sure I can find Meyer lemons in my town 🙁
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
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.
recipetried says
I finally made this with. The last of the Meyer lemons from last year's crop. Excellent recipe!
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.
Cthebird says
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 admit that this iced lemon cake tasted a little better than the orange loaf because the lemon glaze was particularly good. I image that NOT using the syrup would reduce the lemon flavor. For that reason I will seek out a different recipe and keep this recipe's glaze in mind. I'm afraid that I compare iced lemon cakes to this one I bought in Philadelphia. That didn't seem to have a syrup added. I think the cake itself was flavorful enough.
Isabel says
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.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Carol, I haven't. You may need to adjust the amount of batter but it should work.— Sent from Mailbox for iPhone
Carol says
Have you tried this in a bundt pan?
Marc Matsumoto says
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?
paulettabowen says
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
Marc Matsumoto says
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.
Keith Fullerton says
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.
Marc Matsumoto says
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.
Martin says
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 !!
Marc Matsumoto says
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.
Andrea says
How necessary is the stand mixer? I don't have one but this sounds delicious and I'd love to make it...
recipetried says
Another good one. Can't wait to make this over the weekend. I have lots of Meyer Lon's on my tree.
kiki says
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...
Swiss Iller says
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. 🙂