Very fluffy lemon cake!

My lemon cake. Don't be fooled by its simple look; it tastes divine!

A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago whether I’ve switched my blog into a total-Japanese dorama review blog. I chuckled and said no. I love watching J-dorama (and Okada Masaki), but this blog is a tangent personal thing where I can write many things, not just my affection towards J-dorama and J-cute guys.

One of the things that I have been wanting to write is my favourite recipes. And since I suddenly crave for a delicious lemon cake, I thought I will just post my newfound, super favourite, super easy recipe for lemon cake. I found it on the net because I had almost a dozen egg yolks at my disposal after making Martha Stewart’s white cupcake with Swiss Meringue buttercream (click this for the recipe). Because I didn’t want to waste the egg yolks, I searched for a cake that will need at least 5-6 egg yolks. And here it is! I got it from this site, but this recipe is so popular, I found the same recipe in other sites too, such as Allrecipes.com.

Based on the reviews from Allrecipes, I made a slight change in the recipe. I reduced the milk to 1 cup plus TWO tablespoons, and added one tablespoon of lemon juice in the cake batter. The result was super amazing! The cake had lemon fragrance and tasted lemony, without being too tangy. The egg yolks helped the cake to have such a soft and beautiful structure that almost melted in your mouth! The recipe for the cake is totally recommended! 

I haven’t tried the icing recipe; didn’t have time to make it last week. But I might as well put the recipe here.

Enjoy your baking!

This lemon cake has a beautiful soft structure that almost melts in your mouth...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (=113 grams), softened
1-3/4 cups sugar (=350 grams)
6 egg yolks
2-1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk (original recipe called for extra 3 tablespoons)

1 Tablespoon of lemon juice (original recipe omitted this)
1 Tablespoon grated lemon rind (I used one lemon for this)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.

2. In a mixer, cream the butter then add the sugar, beating well.

3. Reduce speed to medium and add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

5.  Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in the lemon juice and lemon rind last (I mixed it at the last minute to avoid the milk, egg yolk and baking powder mixed up with the juice too early; see this for example)

6. Pour batter into prepared cake pans, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until cake tests done with toothpick or cake tester. (Note: since I used a single 9-inch cake pan, it took me almost 40 min to get the cake baked well done)

7. Cool layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely before frosting.

Note: You can make lemon cupcakes out of this recipe. I yielded exactly 30 cupcakes with this recipe, and it took around 20min for them to be perfectly baked.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (=113 grams), softened
1 egg yolk
1-pound box (3-3/4 cups) confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
5 to 6 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy.

2.  Add the egg yolk, beating well, and gradually beat in the sugar with the lemon juice until desired spreading consistency is reached.

3. Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake layers.