A Delicious Glazed Lemon Cake Recipe

When it comes to baking sweets at home one of my go-to flavors to bake with is lemon. And while I absolutely love the sweet, citrusy taste, I end up using lemon a lot mostly because I’m lazy! It’s just so easy to zest up some lemon peel and throw it into a recipe to enhance the flavor. (I use this mircoplane tool which makes zesting a cinch!) Try it with a basic sugar cookie recipe, pancakes, waffles or even blueberry muffins! But today we’re talking about cake folks. Sweet, moist, deicious cake that will fill your home with the divine aromatics of natural lemon flavor. My favorite lemon cake recipe is one I adapted from Martha Stewart and it is perfection. It makes a simple, single layer cake and the preparation is very easy. Easter is coming up so if you need ideas for a desert to pair with your dinner, this recipe won’t disappoint. Get all the deets plus shop my favorite lemon-inspired baking essentials below!

INGREDIENTS

For the Cake:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour (or your favorite gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum. I use this.)
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cane sugar (regular granulated sugar works just fine too)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
Zest of 1 1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla

For the glaze:
Juice of 2 lemons, or approx 5 tablespoons
2 cups powdered sugar
Zest of 1/2 lemon

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch cake pan with butter and set aside. Sift your dry ingredients together and set aside. Next,  add your lemon zest to the sugar and mix well to infuse the sugar with that lemony taste. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat butter on medium high speed until light and fluffy for about 4 minutes. Make sure the butter is nice and soft before you do this. Then add the sugar/lemon zest mixture and beat for another minute. Next add your eggs beating in one at a time. Then after your eggs are incorporated beat in the vanilla extract. Finally, alternate your dry ingredients mixture with the buttermilk until everything is combined, starting and ending with the flour. Pour batter into cake pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Rotate your pan once during the baking process. To make the glaze, whisk ingredients together in a bowl until smooth and blended. After the cake has cooled for 15 minutes, drizzle about 1/3 of the glaze on top. The cake should still be warm and the glaze will absorb into the cake, oozing into the air pockets which will make it extra yummy. Let the cake cool 15 more minutes before drizzling the remainder of the glaze. Enjoy!

Photos by John Dolan

SHOP BAKING ESSENTIALS