Recipe from Mary Berry
Adapted by Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(1,487)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This light and moist lemon poundcake has a crunchy sugar glaze that crystallizes on top, giving a contrasting texture to the soft crumb underneath. It’s an easy-to-make, crowd-pleasing cake that’s excellent on its own but takes well to embellishments. A scoop of ice cream or sorbet, fruit compote and-or lemon curd are all wonderful alongside. —Melissa Clark
Featured in: ‘The Great British Bake Off’ Changes the Way the British Bake
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Ingredients
Yield:24 servings
- 1cup/225 grams butter (2 sticks), softened, more for greasing pan
- 2cups plus 3 tablespoons/275 grams all-purpose flour
- 5½teaspoons baking powder
- ¼teaspoon kosher salt
- Finely grated zest and juice of 2½ lemons
- 2¼cups/450 grams granulated sugar
- 4large eggs
- ¼cup/60 milliliters whole milk
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
235 calories; 9 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 36 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 19 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 118 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
Heat oven to 325 degrees and place a rack in the center. Grease a 9-by-12-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, allowing a 2-inch overhang on the long sides.
Step
2
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.
Step
3
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and half of the sugar (225 grams/1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, then beat in milk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary (mixture will look curdled, and that’s O.K.). Mix in flour mixture until combined, then scrape into prepared baking pan, smoothing the top.
Step
4
Bake until golden brown and springy, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then use the paper overhang to lift the cake out of the pan; transfer to wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet and carefully remove paper.
Step
5
While cake bakes, in a small bowl mix together remaining half of the sugar (225 grams/1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) and enough lemon juice to make a runny mixture. While cake is still warm, spoon the sugar mixture evenly over the top. (The cake has to be cooled slightly to prevent topping from melting, but warm enough that it soaks into the cake, leaving a crunchy sugar coat on top.) Let cool, then cut into squares.
Ratings
4
out of 5
1,487
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Cooking Notes
elle
It would be more helpful to provide the volume of lemon juice and zest, rather than the arbitrary instruction, "2 1/2 lemons." Right now, the lemons in my market are huge, with a small amount of pulp for juicing. So I'll have a great quantity of zest with not much juice.
Melissa -- would you kindly adjust the recipe to reflect the amounts of lemon j. and zest? Thanks so much.
Leobot
Would it be a disaster to use a 9x13 pan? I've never seen a 9x12 in person, and there are only a handful on Amazon that I saw. But I do have 9x13s galore.
Paul
A 9x12 would be a quarter-sheet pan with 1-inch sides. The low sides are key to getting the cake out in one piece as described. Alternatively, you could glaze the cake right in the deep 9x13 and serve it out of the pan, too.
Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor
This is correct. Mary Berry, from whom this recipe was adapted, uses self-rising flour (which contains baking powder). Melissa converted this one to AP flour, so she had to add additional baking powder. It seems like a lot, but it works!
Lillybelle
I made a half recipe in a 8in. round cake pan and everyone loved it. It's very easy to make, and has a pleasant, non-soggy texture and balanced flavor.
nativetex
Lemon drizzle or glaze is especially good on homemade gingerbread. Include some zest in the glaze. You can substitute powdered sugar for regular sugar if you like. If the cake was too warm when you applied the drizzle and the drizzle sank into the cake, let the cake cool for an hour or two and apply another coating. So much the better -- moist glaze inside and a coating outside.
Cate
Changing pan size is ok. You just need to adjust baking time as the batter will be spread across more pan surface. The slightly larger pan means less baking time. Start checking the cake at 20-25 mins. This cake bakes at 325, which is my preferred temp for most cakes.
For glass or dark metal cake pans, the general approach is to reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Glass and dark metal will bake the outer sides too fast at higher temps while the nterior will be under baked.
Frances McSparran
Before spooning the sugar/lemon mixture over the cake, I use a fine skewer to puncture the surface of the cake all over, so that the syrup can soak in just a little bit.
Su S.
HAs anyone tried this? The amount of baking powder, 5 1/2 teaspoons, seems like a lot for 2 cups of flour.
Jo L.
This is positively scrumptious. And 24 servings? Forget it. Two people could easily devour the entire thing in a sitting or two. BTW, I ran out of white granulated sugar and used raw (turbinado) for part of the topping. Terrific. And don't sweat the pan size--just use something similar in dimensions and watch the baking time.
Ruth
Here is the site for Mary's own recipe. Note that like most British bakers, she uses self-rising flour. http://www.maryberry.co.uk/recipes/baking/lemon-drizzle-traybake
Elle
If it's not advisable, create a 9x12 by lining the pan the long way first with heavy duty foil, turning it up and folding the edge over to create a pan one inch shorter than the metal one. Then line the foil with the greased parchment and proceed as directed.
Molly
9 x 9 pan worked perfectly.
Sudipta
This is a great recipe! I added some earl grey to it because I love the lemon+tea combination. I brewed 6 bags of tea in 1/2 cup of milk, and used 1/4 cup of this for the recipe. I also crushed a bag of earl grey and added it to the dry ingredients. You get tiny specks of tea in the end which I like.
Joseline
Great result! Added half a cup of almond meal and halved the sugar both in the batter and glazing and turned out sweet enough for the family.
David
Sunk in the middle. What did I do wrong?
Yasmin
The cake was far too sweet. Next time I would use less sugar in the glaze, maybe 1/2 or 2/3 of a cup. Otherwise the cake was delicious, rose very well and was fluffy. It was done perfectly, golden brown in 35 minutes.
Anita
So good, use lots of zest
Julie
It would be really helpful to give the precise measurements for the lemon juice and zest. Thank you.
elle
Would also appreciate understanding how to flip it over twice without breaking the cake!
Lynn
I used the correct size pan and followed the directions carefully, but the cake fell in the middle which created a "swamp" for the drizzle. Very, very sweet. Will try a different recipe the next time.
DDD
This was simple and delicious and my final product looked exactly like the picture. I was rushed and didn't read the directions for the glaze quite right. I dumped in all of the remaining lemon juice when making the glaze. It was a simple fix; I just added sugar until the consistency matched the description (runny.) It was a close call when lifting it out of the pan, but I made it. When the cake was warm but not hot, I glazed it on rack over wax paper for easier clean up.
Marianne
35 minutes was too long as it is a bit dry. Lovely lemon flavor makes it a great light dessert.
dar-ling
Cake is very good, skip the sugar on top. Too sweet!
Easy and worth making
I made a half recipe in a 8” glass dish. The glaze amount was too much. Next time I’ll mix 1/4 cup sugar with less lemon Justice.
Kelly J
I baked this loaf and took it camping. It was gone in a minute. Only wish I’d baked two!
Alexander
I, too, are always puzzled about things like "juice of x". Especially citrus fruits come in such large variety that between two different, say, lemons, there can easily be a factor of 2 between their juice content.
lemon pasta
This is perfection !
lemony twist
A 9X12 baking pan is as rare as a purple cow. Melissa, how do we adjust the recipe and baking time when we use the classical 9X13 pan? I have a tiny apartment and no more storage for another anything under my bed(lol).
cathy
I wanted a smaller dessert so I cut the recipe in half, except for the glaze, where I forgot. Baked in a pie plate - perfect amount of batter. Used most of the glaze, then served with a scoop of ice cream with the rest of the glaze. Fantastic.
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