Lemon Drizzle Cake
Inspired by Juno the bakery
Jump to RecipeIf you have ever been to Juno the bakery in Copenhagen or you just love lemon cake – and to be honest, I have never met anyone that doesn’t like lemon cake – you will want to try this lemon cake recipe.
I have made many lemon cakes in my life, and I’ve had some pretty good ones. But the best one I ever had was at Juno, the bakery. I actually went there with two friends on a miserable grey Saturday in February. We planned a tour to find the best fastelavnsboller in Copenhagen, and since Juno was our first stop, our eyes were obviously bigger than our stomachs, so we wanted to try everything. And that lemon cake was amazing.
Instead of the typical lemon icing (which is also delicious), they coat the cake in a lemony sugar. This actually keeps the cake from being too sweet and adds a crunchy element as well. But since Juno is quite far from my house and buying cake in Copenhagen gets expensive, I wanted to recreate it and experiment with that sugar coating. The recipe itself is not too complicated – just make sure to follow a few important steps as often the problem with lemon cakes is that they don’t really taste like lemon. To avoid this and really make it taste lemony, you should remember the following:
- Only use the lemon zest in the batter. This is where the most flavor comes from. Ideally, use organic lemons or wash the lemons really well with hot water.
- Make holes in the cake and pour the lemon juice (mixed with powdered sugar) over it right after baking. This will infuse the whole cake and makes sure that the lemon flavor doesn’t evaporate while baking.
- Coat the cake with the lemon sugar mixture right after baking while it’s still warm; otherwise, it will not stick.
So, here’s how to make it:
Lemon Drizzle Cake
Course: Dessert, Cake, Sweet10
servings30
minutes180
CelsiusThe classic lemon drizzle cake with a twist of a lemon infused sugar coating inspired by Juno the bakery.
Ingredients
- For the cake:
170g butter (soft)
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar or whatever vanilla you have available
3 large eggs
170g flour
½ tsp baking powder
Zest of 2 large lemons
- For the drizzle:
Juice of 2-3 lemons
70g powdered sugar (more or less, depending on your sweet tooth)
- For the sugar coating:
Zest of 1 lemon
40g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla sugar (optional)
Directions
- Prepare the sugar coating first. Zest a lemon and mix it with the 40g of caster sugar, salt and vanilla sugar. You can also experiment here if you want. Maybe you have some other ideas on how to infuse the sugar.
- Grease or line a bread tin (about 24 x 10 cm) and preheat your oven to 180 C/350 F fan setting.
- Cream softened butter, caster sugar and vanilla sugar together. Then mix in the eggs. Mix for a few minutes on high speed until the color gets lighter. We want to create a lot of air here to make the cake light and fluffy (check out my baking basics for more info on this).
- Take your spatula or spoon and carefully fold in the flour, baking powder and lemon zest. Just mix until it’s combined to keep the air, but make sure the flour is fully incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 30 minutes. You know it’s ready, when you stick in a knife or chopstick and there is no batter left on it.
- While the cake is in the oven, prepare the drizzle. Simply mix lemon juice and powdered sugar together.
- Take the cake out of the oven when it’s ready and poke some holes all over it. Pour the lemon drizzle over it and let it rest for a few minutes.
- While the cake is still warm, carefully take it out of the tin and coat it in the lemon infused sugar coating. Let it cool down. It honestly tastes the best after at least a few hours or the next day. I like to bake it in the evening to enjoy it the next day.
Notes
- You can easily swap the butter with vegan or lactose free butter.
- If you want the cake to be less sweet, you can just use less sugar. This is usually possible in cakes and doesn’t affect the structure too much.
- Feel free to experiment with the sugar coating. Maybe you find something great to infuse it with. Just make sure it doesn’t become a liquid to keep that texture.
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