Strawberry-Lemon Loaf Cake
Published July 29, 2021
- Total Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 1cup/150 grams diced strawberries
- 1cup/200 grams plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1½cups/192 grams all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- ½teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 1cup/227 grams sour cream, at room temperature
- ½cup/110 grams vegetable oil
- 3large eggs, at room temperature
- 1tablespoon lemon juice
- 1teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1cup/123 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 1tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 2tablespoons lemon juice
For the Cake
For the Lemon Glaze
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Step 2
In a small bowl, toss the strawberries with 1 tablespoon sugar to macerate while you prepare the cake batter.
- Step 3
In a large bowl, combine the flour, lemon zest, baking powder, salt and remaining 1 cup sugar. Whisk to combine. In a second large bowl, combine the sour cream, oil, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
- Step 4
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir gently to mix. Lift the macerated berries out of their liquid and add them to the batter. Gently fold in the berries until evenly incorporated.
- Step 5
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. If it looks to be browning on top too much, tent with aluminum foil. Cool it in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, then unmold the cake carefully and transfer to the rack to cool completely.
- Step 6
Make the glaze: In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar with the lemon zest and juice and stir until smooth. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake. Let stand until set.
Private Notes
Comments
This looks like the glorious lemon drizzle cake I’ve made twice this summer, although mine was vegan. As with all good lemon drizzle cakes, you make lots of small holes in the top of the cake just after you take it out of the oven. Then you drizzle a lemon simple syrup over the cake, concentrating on those holes. When it’s cool, you it glaze it just as with this recipe. I decorated the cake with lemon zest and sliced strawberries. Everyone loved it.
Careful with the advice to throw in extra strawberries as they add more water and can screw up the texture of the cake. I had a bunch of strawberries and so I added roughly 2 c of strawberries without thinking that fully through. No surprise, my cake was overly moist/spongy.
For those wanting more strawberry flavor without the added liquid, freeze dried strawberries.
I made a bunch of substitutions because my pantry was not as well-stocked as I would've liked! Subbed Greek yogurt for sour cream and baking soda lemon juice for baking powder, as I had neither. I also rubbed the lemon zest with the sugar (reduced it to 1/2 cup) and mixed it with the wet ingredients instead of the dry ones. The end result was great! Strawberries and lemon go amazingly together. I haven't made the glaze yet as I was too impatient to try it, but it's next on my list.
After macerating the strawberries, save the strawberry juice at the bottom of the bowl and use it in the glaze! It gives the glaze a beautiful pink color and adds a lot of flavor.
I made this a few nights ago, and it was delicious. I did a few modifications others had noted: I traded out the sour cream with Fage Greek yogurt, and swapped the oil with butter. I also added more lemon zest than 1 tablespoon (I like a lot of lemon) and used the macerating liquid as a base for the glaze. This was a beautiful, moist cake with a perfect summer flavor.