Lemon and cardamom drizzle cake

Lemon drizzle cake recipe

There are many different kinds of cakes made with lemon, and it is not difficult to see why. Lemon zest is fragrant without being overpowering. It can be added to baked goods without affecting the chemical reactions taking place between the other ingredients. Lemon’s fresh scent also makes the simple sweetness from sugar seem more complex, and its tart juice helps balance richer cakes. 

Of all lemon cakes, the lemon drizzle cake is a British favourite, with around 40% of the nation voting it as their number one choice of cake. Believed to be created in 1967 by a Jewish woman named Evelyn Rose, it’s a cake that you would expect to find at a traditional English afternoon tea. You may have eaten it as either a pound or sponge cake featuring lemon zest in the cake batter and drizzled with a runny lemon icing when serving. 

This lemon cake recipe introduces a twist to the crowd-favourite cake by adding cardamom into the batter. Cardamom has a floral and minty flavour that pairs well with the lemony aroma of the zest oil.

How to make a lemon flavoured drizzle cake

Believe it or not, you can achieve a deliciously moist lemon cake by using an air fryer. An air fryer is essentially a mini fan-forced oven, so it’s similar to baking a cake in the oven on the fan-forced setting. Because the air fryer is smaller, it preheats more quickly, so you can eat the cake sooner! 

Get your ingredients and equipment ready before you start measuring and mixing. You will need softened butter, caster sugar, lemon, cardamom, eggs, self-raising flour and honey-flavoured yoghurt. You also need an air fryer, oven-safe cake pan (this recipe uses a 20 centimetre pan), skewer to test the cake’s doneness, wire rack, electric mixer, grater and silicone spatula. 

To make this easy lemon cake, ensure that the butter and eggs are at room temperature before baking with them. The butter should be soft enough to press between your fingers. Make sure the cake pan is greased well and the base lined with baking paper to avoid any sticking.

To aerate the cake batter, use an electric mixer to cream the butter, sugar, lemon rind and cardamom until pale and light. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, before folding in the flour and yoghurt gently to avoid knocking the air out. 

Pour the batter into the pan and use a spatula to smoothen the surface. Make sure that your pan fits in the air fryer. If not, you can always use two smaller cake pans and cook the cakes in two batches. Be aware that smaller cakes take less time to cook and the second batch will coo more quickly than the first, so test the cake earlier to check if it’s cooked through.

Preheat the air fryer to 180°C for a minute or two before placing the pan in the basket of the air fryer. Set the 35 minute cooking time on the air fryer, and leave the cake in there to bake for this time or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before taking it out and placing it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

If you don’t have an air fryer and want to cook the cake in an oven, remember to preheat the oven to 180°C before prepping the ingredients as above. Place the cake on the oven’s middle shelf and keep the oven door shut to give the cake its best chance to cook evenly. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until it passes the skewer test. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before taking it out and placing it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the drizzle icing, use icing sugar, butter and lemon juice. All you have to do is place the butter and icing sugar in a bowl, then stir in enough lemon juice to make a smooth paste.

Try other lemon cake recipes

While you can never go wrong with a simple lemon cake, lemons unsurprisingly feature in a variety of other cakes, given its light and almost sweet fragrance.

If you enjoy a tart and sweet combo, you’ll love lemon yoghurt cake, lemon cheesecake and sour cream lemon cake. To make the yoghurt cake, fold in yoghurt, lemon juice and lemon rind after whisking the eggs. The cheesecake also adds both the juice and rind into the cheese mixture. For the sour cream cake, make sure you have a Bundt cake pan to achieve its iconic shape. 

For a cake that is on the sweeter side, try a recipe that uses lemon curd. This is a rich, creamy topping made of butter, caster sugar, egg, lemon rind and juice. Good lemon curd is silky and smooth. You can achieve this by beating the sugar, egg, rind and juice together first until thick, before gradually whisking in butter in small chunks. You’ll also need to strain the curd through a fine sieve after it is cooked on a stove, as there may be lumps formed from cooked eggs. Spread the curd over a cake to make lemon curd cake, or use it as a topping for pancakes or scones. 

Lemon curd can also be swirled into the batter of a lemon ricotta cake before it is put into an oven. The ricotta cake’s creaming process looks a little different, adding ricotta after the butter and sugar becomes pale and light, before beating in the eggs.

You could also try a lemon poppy seed cake, lemon coconut cake, blueberry lemon cake if you fancy a cake with variation in textures, or swap out flour for almond meal to make a flourless lemon cake.

Now get cooking

Brighten your mid afternoon with a zesty slice of this citrus cake, following the recipe and tips above. Up your lemon drizzle game with this lemon and blueberry bundt cake recipe. 

Want to make a lemon cake with lemon curd? Have a go at baking the lemon curd and coconut milk cake or this lemon curd basque cheesecake. Learn how to make delicious lemon cake icing by drawing inspiration from these recipes for Curtis Stone’s lemon pound cake with raspberry glaze, lemon poppy seed naked cake and mini lemon and raspberry cakes. For anyone needing to avoid gluten, this gluten-free lemon and blueberry cake is for you. Or try a healthy lemon cake with this recipe for lemon and rhubarb yoghurt cake. Have leftover lemons and itching to venture beyond baking cakes? Check out this recipe bank of the best lemon desserts, from mousse to puddings to tarts.