Lemon Cardamon Cake Loaves

I wanted, no needed, to bake something.  So I went to one of my sources for all things baked.  I love the Bake from Scratch Magazine.  Wonderful pictures, do-able recipes for the home cook.  More things than I can make unless I bake something every day.

I’ve also purchased both books: Bake From Scratch Artisan recipes and  Bake From Scratch Volume 2. These volumes consolidate many of the magazine recipes in one place. Beautiful books, and the first thing I did with each was sit down to page through and mark off recipes I wanted to try.   It’s a lot of pages.

So when the baking bug hit me yesterday, I decided to try the Orange Cardamon Loaves in Bake from Scratch volume 2 (page 56).  I pulled out the ingredients from the pantry, lined it all up on the counter, and reached to the fridge for the orange to zest and juice.  Uh oh…no orange.  I put the last one out for the woodpeckers a couple days ago.  Ah, but lots of fresh lemons.

So it turned it into Lemon Cardamon Loaves for me.  I also added a bit of lemon extract to bump up the flavor. The cardamon is a lesser used spice in America than cinnamon or cloves, but is a wonderful addition to baked goods.  Coming from the ginger family, it has a strong  citrus & spicy flavor, so only a little is needed.  If you don’t have any, try substituting cinnamon, nutmeg or coriander.  Now that I think about it, I should have added coriander too – it’s naturally lemony-citrus flavor would be perfect!

The recipe makes two loaves.  I popped one in the freezer sealed into a bag with my Food Saver  for another time. I did not ice it at the time of freezing, as I want the fresh taste of lemon in just-made icing when I decide to defrost and serve it.

Next recipe to try might be the Strawberry Cream Cheese pound cake Loaves on the following page…. it looks amazing too!

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Lemon Cardamon Loaf Cake

A perfect quick loaf cake to make - the recipe makes 2 loaves, so one for now, and one for the freezer (do not add icing until defrosted).  Lemon extract, lemon zest and lemon juice all  make this dense moist cake just delicious!

Course Dessert
Keyword lemon cake, loaf cake
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
REsting time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 3/4 cups cane sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp lemon extract

Lemon Icing

  • 2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1 tsp grated lomon zest
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • additiona zest to sprinkle on top

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F, and grease and flour two loaf pans (8 x 4")

  2. in large bowl whisk together  flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cardamon; make a well in the center (if stirring by hand) or add to the mixer bowl the milk, oil, eggs, zest and flavorings.  Whisk or mix until  smooth.

  3. divide batter between the two pans.

  4. Bake 55 minutes until a pick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pans about 10 minutes - the sides will pull away from the pans a bit.


  5. Remove from pans and allow to cool thoroughly.  Drizzle with the icing (or it you like it thicker, spread on with a knife).

  6. For the icing: whisk all ingredients together, starting with only about half the juice, and adding more until the icing is thick or thin to your preference.

Recipe Notes

This recipe was originally made a Orange Cardamom loaves, so by all means substitute orange juice, extract and zest for the lemon.

I think even lime juice and zest would work!  I think maybe a bit of freshly grated nutmeg too...