De-luscious Lemon Cake

I'm a sucker for lemon desserts. Tart and sweet is kind of like chocolate and salty--you can just keep eating its perfection forever. (OK, that's not necessarily a good thing.)

I came across the recipe this morning on VocalPoint and something in it just screamed, "Make me, Jessie!" I knew all I would need was lemons, so I listened the voice. I am bringing dinner to my Bible-study group tomorrow night and thought it would make a perfect sweet ending. As a somewhat wise cook, however, I also knew I'd better test it before I took a new recipe to a bunch of people I'm just getting to know. Wouldn't want to poison anyone.

This dessert is like a sponge cake on top and a custard on the bottom. Mmmmm. It'd be even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top to balance out the tart lemon. Maybe I'll pick up a pint for tomorrow night. (If you're interested, I'll also be serving Jo-Lynne's beef enchiladas and Mexican Corn Dip AKA Magically Delicious Dip according to Amanda.)

I modified the recipe to fit with my whole-foods-hopeful lifestyle. If you use white flour and white sugar, it will probably be a much lighter color.

De-Luscious Lemon Cake
3/4 cup sucanat or turbinado sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs, separated--let the whites warm to room temperature while you prepare the rest of the recipe
3 T  butter, very soft
1 tsp lemon zest (from about 1 lemon--zest before you juice)
3/4 cup lemon juice (from about 3 lemons. Meyer lemons are actually cheaper than regular ones right now, and very flavorful!)
1 1/2 cups milk

Heat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8x8 pan with cooking spray (or butter it, if you're anti-Pam).

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks about 1 minute. Stir in butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and milk. Add sugar mixture and stir together well.

Beat egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks appear. Add contents of other bowl and mix on medium for a minute or until the batter is smooth.

Pour batter into your prepared pan. Place that pan in a larger dish (like a lasagna pan or roaster) and fill with hot water to about 1 inch up the sides of your cake pan.

Cook for 40-50 minutes or until top is brown and starting to crackle. Serve warm or chilled, preferably with ice cream!

Linked up to Tasty Tuesday & Lemon Recipes at The Happy Housewife.

----
Subscribe to the RSS feed or by e-mail.
Twitter much? I'm vanderbiltwife there, too.
Join my Facebook Fan Group
A few of my favorite things on my Tumblr page