For this month’s Avid Baker’s Challenge, we’re doing a Lemoniest Little Lemon Loaf recipe. This recipe was quite easy to follow, and came together very easily. I would say that I think the writer went a wee bit overboard with cautious instructions, and that things could probably have been treated a bit more roughly than it sounds, as the batter is very thick and seems quite forgiving.
For ours, because the recipe was for a “little” cake, I tripled the recipe (which left me with leftover egg whites, which got turned into wee almond cookies, but that’s a recipe for another day). I probably should have quadrupled the recipe, given that I put it into a 16″ x 16″ pan … but, it turned out nicely, and there should be enough for some of the ravening horde of my coworkers to get some.
I also deviated from the recipe by increasing the amount of lemon zest (because lemon zest, you know?), and icing the thoroughly cooled cake with a lemon juice / powdered sugar glaze. You’ll thank me for suggesting it, as there’s nothing worse than a lemon-ish cake, n’est-ce pas? Besides, the cake itself seems a bit dry, so perhaps I overbaked – not sure.
We’ll have to wait ’til tomorrow for photos of the cut cake, as I want to allow the glaze to set overnight.
EDITED TO ADD: It seems that the edges were the driest; the pieces of glazed cake in the middle turned out to be quite moist, so the texture may have had something to do with the way our oven bakes (unevenly). Everyone at work was very enthusiastic, and the whole cake vanished well before half-past eleven (mid-week, people must not eat breakfast before work!).
Also the question of the dryness of our cornmeal came up – when we lived in Scotland, kiln-dried flour vs. warm air dried flour meant that we needed to add more moisture to basic wheat bread. Our cornmeal wasn’t organic or polenta-related – it was a box of plain yellow cornmeal, finely ground and stored in a box above the stove… heat rising may have dried it further. It’s almost impossible to account for everything which could have caused a texture variation – the baker can only do the best that they can!
There are likely other, more successful takes on this cake. Do swing by and check out the other participants in this month’s Avid Baker’s Challenge.
-D
Wow brave of you to triple the recipe. I am totally with you on ‘more’ lemon. I like the kick to come through too. I found the texture too dry too I would chalk it down to the cornmeal.
Wow, tripled the recipe and baked in a 16×16 pan. Way to go! Good thinking on increasing the amount of lemon zest. I used the zest of a whole large lemon for 1x recipe. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the inside later.
Btw, small correction: it’s *n’est-ce pas* 🙂
-Hanaâ
Yep yep – 5 lemons went into it, and I wish that I’d not adjusted the amount of juice (I had a full cup of juice, but didn’t use 1/4 cup of that, to follow the recipe). I think it could have taken another bit of juice, to make the batter a bit looser. That’s the risk when scaling up a recipe, though: any deficiencies are multiplied.
I love all things lemon. Good choice. Glad to see you have your bakers hat on again.
I see we have a guy among us 😉 Quite a bit of cake to eat down, but I agree, I would add a little more lemon juice next time, too.
Mmmmmmm. Looks really really yummy!