A Little More Lemon Now

A bright, not too sweet loaf cake to get you through winter

This is always the time of year when I start missing fresh summer fruit. Instead of settling for some shitty out of season strawberries, let’s bake with citrus. You already preserved some lemons, so why not show them a little sweetness too?

Typically, I’m not the biggest fan of lemon desserts. They are usually cloyingly sweet or taste like a cleaning product to me. No thanks. But when I started thinking of the perfect sweet to go with my midday London Fog, I landed on something with lemon. My wife has been strongly campaigning for a loaf cake for a while and her love of lemon flavored desserts is unnatural, so this matchup was bound to happen eventually. This lemon loaf is not too sweet and has the right amount of lemon to taste bright and fruity without going full Lemon Pledge. I added a glaze because it looks so pretty but the basic loaf is delicious all on its own.

I took a page from the Spork Sister’s birthday cake and added some spelt flour to make the loaf have a more custardy texture. If you don’t have spelt flour, more all-purpose will do just fine. You want to make the loaf a little fancier, you could add some dried lavender or rosemary to the batter or glaze or brew a bag of earl grey tea in the milk called for in the recipe before adding it to the batter. Even if you keep it simple as can be, you’ll love it.