Sweet, Tart and Tangy Lemon Cake

This year I have been blessed with an abundance of lemons.  Years ago we planted two different kinds of lemon trees.  One has been supplying us with lemons for eight years, and the other tree, maybe five lemons a year.  I gave up on that tree; it’s nice and green, produces fragrant flowers but no lemons.  That was until this year, and not only did it produce lemons, but really nice tart, juicy, yellow beauties.  So now I have two trees and more lemons than I can handle.  Even friends and family have nicely told me to stop bringing lemons to them.

What do you do with so many lemons?  We have a constant pitcher of lemonade in the fridge and containers of frozen lemon juice and zest in the freezer for the time when I realize I have no more lemons.  Even my family has grown a little tired of everything having lemons in it.  We have a lot of baked goods from lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, lemon brownies, lemon shortbreads and our favorite this Sweet, Tart and Tangy Lemon Cake.

Lately, I have been inundated with layer cakes covered in buttercream and was happy to have a nice, simple cake with a lemon glaze.  This cake has pieces of lemon baked into the cake that adds some surprising lemon flavor.

To get started on the cake, zest the lemons first.

Next, make the lemon pieces by slicing the peel off the lemon then supreme the slices which simply means to remove the membrane from the lemon slices so they end up nice and clean looking. Once you remove the membrane break up the slices into small pieces which will be added to the cake batter.

You need some tools to get the job done and  I love my citrus zester and wooden lemon reamer.

With all this zesting and slicing your kitchen will have a wonderful citrus smell to it. I love that!

A slice of lemony goodness

5 from 6 votes

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Sweet, Tart and Tangy Lemon Cake

This is the ultimate in lemon cakes.  With a sweet lemon glaze, tart lemon flavor and tangy from the baked in lemon pieces, this cake is for the lemon lover.

Course Cake

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 12 servings

Author Jere @ One Hot Oven

Ingredients

• 4 lemons, washed and dried
• 3 cups cake flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream

Lemon Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powered sugar, sifted
• 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease and flour an angel food cake pan or a bundt pan. 

2. Zest four lemons.

3. Remove the peel from the lemons by cutting it away vertically. Next holding the lemon over a bowl, supreme each lemon by cutting each segment on either side of the membrane to remove the flesh. When done make sure to remove any seeds and break up the lemon segments in the juice

4. Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and mix with your fingers until the sugar becomes moist and grainy.

5. In a mixing bowl beat the butter for two minutes. Add half the sugar/lemon mixture, beat again for two minutes then add the remaining sugar/lemon mixture; beat for four minutes. Make sure to scrape the bowl occasionally.

6. Add the eggs to the above mixture one at a time, beating each just until combined.

7. On the lowest setting beat in the dry ingredients.

8. Beat in the sour cream.

9. Fold in the lemon segments and the juice.

10. Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake about 1 1/2 hours until cake tester at the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool and turn out the cake to cool.

Making the glaze

1. In a small bowl add the powdered sugar. Zest and juice one lemon and add this to the powdered sugar and stir until smooth.

2. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake.

All done, sliced and ready to eat.

I hope you try making this cake, it mixes up fast and looks so pretty.  Add some raspberries or strawberries on the side for some extra color.  Enjoy!

I love my angel food cake pan; it’s heavy duty with good feet and it does not leak.  This is the pan I use. Also, don’t forget the grater and lemon reamer, if you use a lot of citrus these tools come in handy.