The brightest tea cake. This is super soft, super light, and almost perfect in every way.
Serve it with tea or coffee as a mid-day snack. Best on the first day but travels and keeps very well if stored in an airtight container.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 cup (200 gm) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup caster or fine sugar (200 gm)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1–1/2 cups (210 gm) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (120 gm) milk
3 tablespoons lemon juice
For the icing:
1–3/4 cup (200 gm) powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon buttermilk (make it by adding 2-3 drops of lemon juice to milk & let sit for 10 mins)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a loaf pan with baking spray and set aside. Prepare your lemon zest and lemon juice before you start baking.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl and the beating an additional minute to incorporate. Stir in the vanilla and lemon zest.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir on low until almost combined. Add half of the milk and the lemon juice and stir to almost combine. Repeat this process with the remaining dry and wet ingredients, and fold with a rubber spatula to incorporate the last bits of ingredients.
Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
When you’re ready to prepare the glaze, whisk together all the ingredients until a viscous glaze forms. Add more powdered sugar to thicken it up and more milk or lemon juice to thin it out. Drizzle over top of the prepared cake and enjoy!
For a low-sugar option, let the cakes cool and sift a light dusting of powdered sugar and cornstarch on top. (the cornstarch allows for it to stay powdered sugar without getting absorbed into the cake) This loaf tastes just as good without the icing so you can omit it should you choose!