Lemon

Lemon Halfmoon Cakes

February  7, 2013
4
1 Ratings
  • Serves 8
Author Notes

Yes Denmark is land of Danish pastry and a lot of other amazing baked goods but one of the most popular cakes, is mainly sold in gas stations and cheap supermarkets and it was never part of my Grandmother or mothers baking tradition.

The Lemon Halfmoon has been a long standing joke in the Danish work place. The cake symbolizes your lazy co-worker who just buy one of these for a birthday or Friday afternoon treat, while you of course always bring homemade cakes and treats.

Also the running joke is that police officers subsist on Lemon Halfmoons and they are even part of the political debate.

Baking one from scratch will endear you to everyone and perhaps even poke a bit of fun at the cheapskate who buy cake for the office at a gas station. —Andreadoria56

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Cake
  • 2/3 cup soft butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 1/2 lemon juiced
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 lemon, zested
  • 3 ounces marzipan
  • 2 tablespoons Maple syrup
  • Frosting
  • 1 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • Yellow food coloring
Directions
  1. Cake
  2. Start by mixing sugar, butter, marzipan, lemon zest and maple syrup at low speed with a mixer until you have a smooth mass.
  3. The add the lemon juice and the eggs one at a time - giving each egg time to froth a bit.
  4. Finally add the flour mixed with baking powder.
  5. Scrap into round pan and bake for 20-30 minutes at 200 C.
  1. Frosting
  2. While it bakes make a frosting of 150 grams confectioners sugar and lemon juice - I used the juice of about three quarter of a lemon - adding a bit of yellow food color for an authentic look.
  3. Let cake cool and then frost it and drizzle a bit of lemon zest on top - cut in half.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Andreadoria56
    Andreadoria56
  • piano13
    piano13

2 Reviews

piano13 February 8, 2013
Dumb q but do you take this out of pan, then frost? Also, could this be cupcakes? Cooking time & temp for cupcakes? Thanks, sound yummy!
 
Andreadoria56 February 8, 2013
Yes cool it in pan and then take it out and frost. I'm sure the mix could be used for cupcakes too. I think the temperature and cooking time would be much the same - but set it to 15 minutes to begin with and check how they are doing.