Wow, it’s been a while since I posted anything on here. I do have a backlog of a couple of desserts that I had planned to post, but didn’t have time for it. Starting with these most recent lemon cakes! We went to Switzerland last weekend, and I wanted to bake something to gift to my hosts. Due to the summer heat, and the lack of emergency cookies in my freezer, I opted to go with a recipe I made a couple of times before. The lemon flavor also appealed as I figured it would be refreshing with the weather.
The recipe I used was from Bianca Zapatka, although as usual, I adjusted slightly to match my usual preferences and available ingredients. I also made the cake non-vegan, as I only had actual dairy products on hand. I baked 3 batches (2 to give away and 1 for the family at home). Since I didn’t want to make three consecutive batches and having to wait for each to bake, I looked for my second loaf pan so I could bake the first two together. I couldn’t find it, so I opted to bake the third batch in a pan for mini cakes, and the batter filled up the 8 molds in that pan.
The last times I made this cake, I ended up with a sunken center, and I couldn’t figure out why. This time around, I read the original recipe again and realized that the pan I used was much larger than the recipe called for. So I wouldn’t advise doing that, so stick to the recommended pan size: 8.5 inches or ~21.5 cm. As for the top of the cakes, I went for a quick lemon glaze, basically sifted icing sugar and lemon juice mixed together until I got a good consistency. Then once I poured it over the cakes, and while it hadn’t set, I zested some lemon over that as extra decoration (and to hint to the flavor of the cake).
Then came time to package the cakes nicely. I think for me, this is one of the more challenging aspects of baking as gifts, in particular for cakes and cupcakes. Especially since I don’t really go out of my way to purchase packaging material for this purpose. What I have been doing in the past couple of years, however, is keeping any more solid, clean food boxes I get so that I can recycle them to gift cakes. This time, since I would not only need to commute to my rendez-vous point, for carpooling, but the cakes would then stay in the car for 6-7 hours, I opted to wrap them in parchment paper, tied off with a string, then put both loaf cakes into a cardboard box I had kept from some bulk chocolates we had purchased over the holiday season. I was glad they fit perfectly in the box! To finish it off, I added a little card with the list of ingredients (and noticed later that I forgot to write sunflower oil, so added that in the car) and potential allergens.
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 packet (8 g) vanilla sugar
- 112 g sugar (total 120 g sugar with the vanilla sugar)
- 120 mL (125 g) milk
- 120 g yogurt
- 125 mL (118 g) neutral oil
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- Preheat oven 180°C. Oil and line a loaf pan with baking paper.
- In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Then whisk in the sugar and vanilla sugar.
- In another bowl (or jug to make it easier), combine milk, yogurt, oil, and lemon juice and zest.
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Do not overmix, if there are a few lumps it’s fine.
- Pour into the prepared pan, smooth out the top and tap out air bubbles. Bake for 45 min-1h at 180°C in the lower rack of the oven.
- Cool for 10-15 mins in the pan, then cool completely on a cooling rack.
Blue Blossoms Baking 