By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 2½ hours, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(1,328)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Most lemon cakes rely on zest and juice for flavor. This one uses the whole fruit, pith and all, for an intense citrus flavor. There’s also almond flour in the batter, which gives the cake a dense richness. If you can get Meyer lemons, use them here. Most likely the hybrid of a lemon and a mandarin, Meyer lemons, with thin skins and plenty of juice, are a bit sweeter and less acidic than regular lemons.
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Ingredients
Yield:8 servings
- 4tablespoons/55 grams unsalted butter (½ stick), melted and cooled, plus more for the pan
- ½cup/65 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
- 3medium lemons, preferably Meyer lemons
- 2cups/225 grams almond flour or meal (or ground almonds)
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- 5large eggs, separated
- 1¼cups/250 grams sugar
- ¼teaspoon almond extract
- 1 to 1½cups/125 to 185 grams confectioners’ sugar
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
493 calories; 23 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 65 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 52 grams sugars; 11 grams protein; 238 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan. Put 2 lemons in a medium pot and cover with water by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil, partly cover pot, and let simmer for 40 minutes, or until very tender.
Step
2
Use a slotted spoon to transfer lemons to a bowl. Let cool. Use a spoon to break open lemons and remove the pits. Purée lemons in a mini food processor or blender, scraping down the sides frequently.
Step
3
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Zest remaining lemon into a medium bowl. (Save the rest of the lemon for glaze.) Stir in almond meal, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
Step
4
Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until very foamy. With the mixer still going, gradually beat in ¼ cup sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Slide beaten whites onto a large plate.
Step
5
In the same mixing bowl (you don’t need to wipe it out), beat egg yolks and remaining 1 cup sugar until thick and pale, about 1 minute. Beat in lemon purée, almond meal mixture and almond extract. Using a rubber spatula, fold in melted butter.
Step
6
Fold a third of the egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it. Fold in another third until well incorporated. Finally fold in remaining egg whites, taking care not to overmix. (A few white streaks are O.K.) Spread batter into prepared pan.
Step
7
Bake until top of cake is well browned and it springs back when lightly pressed in the center, 45 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Step
8
When cake is almost cool but still slightly warm (after about 30 to 45 minutes), make the glaze. Juice the zested lemon into a bowl and stir in confectioners' sugar until you have a thick but pourable glaze (if it’s too thick, stir in a few drops of water). Pour glaze over slightly warm cake and let cool completely.
Ratings
4
out of 5
1,328
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Cooking Notes
Stacie
Would it be possible to provide a volume measurement for the lemon juice? Lemons vary a lot. Thank you!
PF
Nice variation on Claudia Roden's traditional Moroccan orange-almond cake. You could easily sub more almond flour for the all-purpose and make it gluten-free.
jangirl
Make sure to poach the lemons until they are ultra soft; otherwise they will not purée smoothly.
Angela dileo
Hi RobertIf you cannot find Meyer lemons, swap 1 TBL orange juice for the same amount of lemon juice for each lemon used.Pretty close.
Ferguson
At what point do you take the side off the pan? Should it cool with the side off or should you pour on the glaze with the side still in place to keep the glaze from dripping down the sides?
AustinCook
Has anyone tried sub'ing gluten-free flour for the 1/2c AP flour? If so, were you happy with the results?
KD
If you cannot get Meyer lemons, do not purée the entire lemon. It will too bitter. Just zest the skin and purée the pulp instead. Great cake and very popular with my friends.
Maggie Caron
I love this cake. I also love Melissa Clark's videos. Now that I have to pay extra to get to the cooking section, I think with this extra cash you can afford to do these again.
ALM NYC
This may be a dumb question but do you purée the skin also ?
Blue Jay
Love lemons, can't eat almonds. What to do?
Schmidtlis
I love Melissa Clark and I loved this cake. She is wholesome, no nonsense, loves a twist, allures, and is simply fabulous. So is this cake!
RLK
The size of Meyer lemons vary greatly. They are much smaller at the grocer's than the gigantic ones on my tree in Florida. A volume measurement would be greatly helpful. I have also found that my home grown Meyer lemon rind has an almost bitter flavor; I would sub a typical Eureka or Lisbon lemon rind.
DC
This recipe includes butter, flour, less egg, almond extract and a different fruit - that's how.
Tim
I had high hopes for this cake because it looked like an interesting variation of Claudia Roden’s Orange Cake. We made this exactly as it is written. We weighed all the ingredients and used Meyer lemons. We found this cake really disappointing. Not a lot of flavor with a pretty dry texture. If you’re thinking of trying this recipe, give the orange cake a try first. Lots easier and way better as far as I’m concerned.
Sounds like a great riff on Claudia Roden's orange almond cake
A mainstay dessert in our house is Time's Classic Claudia Roden's orange almond cake. This sounds like a great alternative.
Jenn Johnson
Made according to the directions, but probably won’t make it again. The lemon flavor was intense, but it was bitter, I guess from the pith. I used Meyer lemons. The texture was a bit too dense for my taste.
themarshal
Very moist and the slight bitterness is a good thing. Baked for 40 minutes on convection. Cut back a little on butter and added some kefir. For glaze, used about 1T of powdered sugar with the lemon juice.
Kathy O
I loved this! It truly brings out that special Meyer lemon flavor. The texture was perfect. Made as written.
Peg
Made this with Meyer lemons and thought using regular ones might make it a bit brighter. I omitted the confectioners sugar for the glaze and just poked the top of the cake and drizzled with straight lemon juice. That made the cake not too sweet. It was very good but not the magical bright I was hoping for.
Austin
Made this as close to written as I could absolutely delicious and looks so beautiful. Will be making this again and again.
Genevieve
I checked my cake at 40 minutes and it was already overdone. I’m at sea level—not sure if that makes a different—but I’d probably start checking at 30 minutes next time.
kay lewis
This was a wonderful cake, moist with full lemon flavor and easy to make. I love that I could easily convert to gluten free for my husband. I just subbed the small amount of all purpose flour with a gluten free mix, but I expect it would also work well if you used all almond flour. We enjoyed this as a dessert and as a special treat with morning coffee. I’m planning to make again today to take on a backpacking trip. Great excuse to enjoy a few extra carbs!
jmack
I used Meyer Lemons and the cake still had a slightly bitter note to it which was slightly off-putting.
Jim Johnson
I only had large Meyer lemons and was also stumped by the lack of volume measurements. I used 1 1/2 cups of puree in the cake, and about 1/6 cup of juice with 1 cup of powdered sugar for the glaze.
Jaime
Lemons, it turns out, float; there is no covering them with any quantity of water whatsoever.
DPT
The work to payout yield is not what I had hoped for. Boil lemons, use (and clean) both food processor and stand mixer, whip egg whites, zest lemons, etc. Cake is good but I feel like I could have similar results with an easier recipe. (I followed the recipe exactly, even used Meyer lemons, all top quality ingredients.) I won't make again. Too bad because typically I love Melissa Clark's recipes
RSP
Huge hit! Already had requests to bake it again. I was a little nervous using regular lemons, so before pulsing in the food processor I took out 1/4 of the rind of a lemon and added a tablespoon of orange juice. After alls said and done I think it still would have been delicious without my edits, more proof to just trust Melissa.
Chris B
This is a good one. Light and dense at the same time.I used 3 steed lemons plus zest of a 4th. I added the zest to the egg yolks rather than almond flour. And I used no butter. Instead, I used a 1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt. That worked great.Because of the extra lemon, I needed to add another 1/2 of sugar.Baked for about 45 minutes. I was sure NOT to overbake it. It came out great!
Julie H.
Loved using the whole lemon, but the flaw in this recipe is the lack of a reference to the volume of lemon puree that is to be added to the batter. It explains the wild variation in results. Mine turned out okay, but not a cake I'd make again. The same flaw continues with the lemon juice referenced for the glaze. I needed only 1.5 Tbl of juice (for 1 C powdered sugar) and my lemon made 6! Melissa Clark should knowJuli that all lemons are not created equal!
Laura C
This is a delicious, moist cake! As I don’t like things too sweet and while the cake was perfect I felt that the glaze was going to be too sweet. I used half of the powdered sugar for the glaze. Then I poked small holes in the top of the cake and used 1/2 of the glaze for the top of the cake. I mixed the remainder of the glaze with 8 ounces of marscapone and spread that over the top of the glazed cake. I then added fresh blueberries, covering the top of the cake. It was delicious!
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