Lemon cake

Journalist and First Nations food content creator Tom Forrest and his grandfather are often thought of as the “fellas who make curry, stew and damper”, but they also love to make desserts, too. This is Tom’s signature lemon cake – which he often drops off as a present to friends or makes for events. His inspiration comes from a cake he once saw at an outback station in the West Kimberley.

• serves

  6

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  45 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Series. Cooking. Rated PG.

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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

series • CookingPG

Ingredients

• 250 g butter, diced, softened
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 lemons, finely zested, divided
• 4 eggs
• 1 ⅔ cups self-raising flour
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) lemon juice
• ¾ cup shredded coconut, to serve

For the icing

• 1 cup icing sugar mixture, sifted
• 1 - 2 tbsp lemon juice

Standing time: 5 minutes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan-forced). Grease and line the base of a 20 cm round cake tin. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted, cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes. Add ¾ of the lemon zest (reserve the rest for the icing!) and mix well to combine. Gradually add the eggs, one-by-one. Remove bowl from the stand mixer and use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the flour, followed by the lemon juice, scraping the base of the bowl to ensure the batter is well mixed.
2. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
3. To make the icing, place the icing sugar and reserved lemon zest into a bowl. Gradually add the lemon juice until you reach your desired consistency. Spread the icing over the cooled cake and sprinkle with coconut. Serve.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.