Lemon Cake

This old-fashioned lemon cake recipe has a charm that defies the years. Bake it now and bring some sweet, lemon-y loveliness to your day. 

Jump to:

• The recipe
• Ingredient notes
• How to make Lemon Cake
• Storage
• Too many lemons?
• Lemon Cake Recipe

The recipe

This recipe comes from the pages of Nana Ling's handwritten recipe books. I've included a picture below. However, please keep scrolling for additional advice on making this recipe plus the tested and tweaked quantities and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Ingredient notes

The first thing you'll need is, of course, lemons! While lemons are more plentiful in winter, they’re generally available year-round. Which is a good thing, since they’re just so handy in the kitchen. 

TIP: The best way to store lemons is in a zip-lock bag in the fridge, leaking out as much air from the bag as possible before sealing.

You'll also need:

• plain flour (all purpose flour)
• caster sugar
• butter
• eggs
• milk
• cream of tartar
• bicarb soda
• salt
• thickened cream
• icing sugar.

How to make Lemon Cake

Start by preheating the oven to 180 degrees celsius (fan-forced). Grease two round cake pans, about 20cm in diameter.

Beat the butter and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes. Add eggs and beat on med-high speed for 2 minutes. Finely grate the lemon rind from both lemons. Keep 1 teaspoon of the rind aside for the filling. Add the remaining rind and milk and mix on low-med speed to combine.

Slowly add sifted dry ingredients, stirring well to combine.Pour half of the batter into each of the greased pans and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Once removed from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes and then gently ease the cakes from the pans.

Filling and Icing your Lemon Cake

Beat the thickened cream until stiff and then mix in the remaining rind. Sandwich the cakes together (once completely cooled) with the cream.

Sift the icing sugar and add enough juice from one of the lemons to make an icing that is just thick enough to gently spread as you add it to the top of the cake.

Let the icing drip down the sides of the cake and decorate with lemon slices.

Storage

Covered, it should last up to a few days in the fridge.

You can serve the cake still cold from the fridge or let it sit at room temperature for about half an hour if you prefer the cake at room temperature.

Too many lemons?

If you’ve got plenty of lemons, there are many ways to use them. Here's some ideas to get you started:

Made this recipe and love it? Please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. (And it really makes my day to hear how Nana Ling's recipes are being made, shared and loved all around the world! - Libby x)

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