Citrus Cake with lemon glaze icing

Prep: 0 hr 30 min

Cook: 0 hr 50 min

Servings: 8 servings

This citrus cake works well with orange, lime, or lemon. If substituting orange or lime juice in the batter, use the same fruit for the icing as well.

If you are a fan of lemon poppy-seed muffins add 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds to the cake mix before baking.

Ingredients

1½ cups Kialla Pure Organic Soft Cake Flour OR Kialla Self Raising Unbleached Flour

1½ teaspoons Baking Powder (not necessary if using Self-Raising Flour)

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon lemon zest (use an organic fruit as there will be no pesticides on the skin)

½ cup of butter (room temperature but not melted)

1 cup sugar. Caster sugar will make a lighter textured cake but if not available granulated sugar is fine.

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoon lemon juice (about half a lemon)

½ cup of milk

ICING: 1 cup icing sugar (you can powder you own by grinding granulated or castor sugar in a spice grinder)

ICING: 1½ tablespoons lemon juice

ICING: 1-2 tablespoon milk

Method

Grease and line a loaf pan (approx 23cm x 12cm x 6cm). Pre-heat oven to moderate 180ºC (350ºF)
Sieve or whisk the flour, baking powder (if using), and salt. Mix lemon zest through the flour.
Cream together sugar and butter (if it’s too hard cut into 1cm cubes before mixing) until well pale, fluffy, and well creamed (about 5 minutes).
Break the eggs into a cup to ensure freshness then beat lightly (if you beat eggs too hard they will ‘toughen’ the mix).
Add the egg a little at a time to the creamed mix while beating at low speed. Then add vanilla and lemon juice.
Fold in a third of the flour, then half the milk, then a third flour, and half milk, finishing with the remaining flour. Now is the time to mix in 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds if desired. The mixture should have a soft dropping consistency.
Scrape mix into the loaf pan, and bake for 45-55 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool in the tin for 10-15 mins before turning onto a rack to cool completely.

Icing

Once the cake is cool make the icing by combining icing sugar, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon milk then mixing well until creamy. Add more milk as required so it has a pouring consistency without being too wet – you want to be able to pour over the cake without it all running off onto the plate. Sprinkle top with more zest if desired. Let dry and harden before serving.

Notes

Some cake tips:

It’s important to cream sugar and butter well. the longer you beat the mix the more fluffiness your cake has because it adds air to the mix. You can do this by hand if you don’t have an electric mixer. To make hand mixing easy make sure your butter is soft like a thickened cream.
Don’t use melted butter as this makes the mix heavier and ‘oilier’. If the butter is too soft pop it back in the fridge for 5 mins.
Ensure your eggs are room temperature not cold and don’t add your eggs too quickly or the mixture will ‘curdle’. If the mix does curdle add a tablespoon of flour to smooth out the mixture.
Don’t over-beat the flour. Fold it in gently preferably with a metal spoon rather than a mixer.

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Citrus Cake with lemon glaze icing