I’m back (again), and this time I’ve got some big news. I’ve moved to Tempe, AZ, and am starting my Grad school. Yes peeps, I’m back to being a student now. So in the weeks leading up to the move, I asked my sister to teach me how to bake a cake. She’s an awesome baker, and I’m sure can bake a cake blindfolded. She suggested making a lemon cake, I just wanted a cake, any cake, so lemon cake it was. And yes, the Sansa reference wasn’t lost here. If you haven’t read A Song of Ice and Fire, or watched Game of Thrones, that reference wasn’t for you (and seriously, what’s wrong with you, why haven’t you done either of those two things?).
Note that this recipe is not a run of the mill cake recipe. I mean it’s still a cake recipe, but the ratios and quantities have been adjusted after trial and error. A tip I was given was, to increase the quantity of cake, multiply the entire recipe by an integer. Don’t increase 2 cups of flour to 3, because 4 and a half eggs are a little hard to find. Go to 4 cups and 6 eggs. Also, the baking time will depend on the quantity. The cooking time given here will increase if you’re making a bigger cake.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- All purpose flour/maida: 1 3/4 cups. Yeah, the quantity above was just for illustration. Sorry about that.
- Sugar: 1 cup
- Eggs: 3
- Lemon juice: 1/6 cup. You will need to adjust this as per your lemon. This quantity is for a relatively strong lemon.
- Lemon extract: 1 tsp.
- Lemon yellow color: 1/2 tsp.
- Vanilla essence: 5-6 drops
- Baking powder: 1 level tsp.
- Baking soda: 1/2 level tsp.
- Salt: 1/4 tsp.
- Oil: 1/2 cup
- Butter: 2 tbsp.
Method:
- Sift together flour and salt
- Melt butter, mix with oil and sugar
- Beat the eggs
- In a mixing bowl, mix the oil sugar mix with the flour and eggs. The method I was taught was to keep the entire oil sugar mix together, then add a little flour, then a little egg, and then mix. Repeat the above till all the flour and eggs are mixed with the oil and sugar.
- Set the oven to preheat at 180 C/350 F.
- Add lemon juice, extract, color and vanilla essence to the batter. Mix everything well and check consistency. It should flow in a single ribbon. If the batter is too thick, add a little milk. If it is too runny (which is mostly going to be the case), add a little flour.
- Once you have ribbon consistency, add baking powder and soda to the batter and mix well.
- Grease a baking tray well and pour the batter in.
- Once the oven is ready, put the cake in and bake at 180 C/350 F for approx. 30 minutes.
- Start checking from around the 25 minute mark to see if the cake is done. Stick a knitting needle or a fork in the center of the cake and see if something sticks. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.
Ta-da! You have a hot lemon cake at hand. Enjoy!
A Bachelor's Adventures in a Kitchen 