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Prep time
6 minutes
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Cook time
45 minutes
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makes
1 8x8 cake
Author Notes
I’ve been making lemon snacking cakes since back in the day. And I’ve been eating them for even longer than that. As a child, my grandmother used to make me a “lemon velvet cake.” Her cake was assembled in a 9x13-inch pan, and although I am a firm believer that such a pan delivers a sheet cake, and not a snacking cake, for the sake of my story, I’m throwing accuracy to the wind. Sitting at my grandmother’s plastic-covered dining room table (the plastic only came off for company—IYKYK), as a little kid, swinging my legs, as my feet were yet to reach the ground, and enjoying slices of her lemon snacking cake is one of my earliest and best food memories. Such a good one in fact, that I even developed my own version of my grandmother’s cake, which you can check outhere. So like I said, lemon snacking cakes and I go way back.
Here, however, I shake things up and add some ricotta to the mix, which results in a fluffier cake, than one without the cheese, that is sweet, but not too sweet and deeply lemon-y due to copious amounts of zest and juice. I also like to add a little lemon extract, for extra zing, but if extracts are not your jam, by all means leave it out. The recipe calls for what I consider to be a generous amount of ricotta and when first developing it, I used much less, thinking that I could just substitute the ricotta one-for-one for the dairy I would typically add to a lemon snacking cake. But I was underwhelmed. A little ricotta cake research ensued, and lo and behold I realized when peeps go ricotta, they go big or go home. I basically doubled the amount (and added an extra egg) and honestly I could not be more excited about this cake (my first foray into ricotta baking, if you must know…). The glaze is sweet, so consider yourself warned, and if you want to pull back on that, reduce the sugar—just know that less sugar means a thinner glaze and probably a disdainful, sideways glance from my grandmother (she liked things sweet). —Jessie Sheehan
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Ingredients
- Cake
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3 tablespoons
lemon zest (about 3 large lemons)
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1 1/4 cups
(247 grams) granulated sugar
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1/2 cup
(99 grams) vegetable oil
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1 1/2 teaspoons
vanilla extract
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1/2 teaspoon
lemon extract, optional
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2
large eggs
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1
large egg yolk
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3 tablespoons
freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 to 3 large lemons)
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1 1/4 cups
(284 grams) full-fat ricotta cheese
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1 teaspoon
baking powder
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1/4 teaspoon
baking soda
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1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1 1/2 cups
(180 grams) cake flour
- Glaze
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1 cup
(113 grams) confectioners’ sugar
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1 tablespoon
to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Directions
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Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center of the oven. Grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan with cooking spray, or softened butter. Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper that extends up and over two opposite sides of the pan.
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Rub the zest into the sugar in a large mixing bowl until fragrant. Whisk in the oil and extracts; and then the eggs and yolk, one at a time, whisking after each. Whisk in the juice and ricotta. Whisk in the baking powder, soda, and salt, one at a time. Place a sieve over the bowl and sift the flour directly into it. Gently fold it in with a flexible spatula. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating at the halfway point, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a moist crumb or two. Let the cake cool on a rack until you can safely lift it out of the pan by the parchment overhang without burning yourself (about 20 minutes). Let cool to room temp before glazing, about 30 minutes.
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To make the glaze, vigorously whisk the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth, adding more or less of one or the other in order to achieve your desired consistency and flavor. Gently pour the glaze over the cake, spreading it with an offset spatula so it drips over the cake’s edges. Let the glaze set before serving, about 20 minutes. The cake will keep tightly wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter for 3 days and is even better the second day.
Jessie Sheehan is a celebrated cookbook author, recipe developer, baker, and host of Cherry Bombe’s baking podcast, She’s My Cherry Pie. She is the self-proclaimed queen of “easy-peasy baking;” and has contributed recipes and writing to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Epicurious, Food52, Bon Appetit, and more. Her third cookbook, Snackable Bakes: 100 Easy-Peasy Recipes for Exceptionally Scrumptious Sweets and Treats was a New York Times best cookbook of 2022. And its savory sibling Salty, Cheesy, Herby Crispy Snackable Bakes, was published in the fall of 2024.
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