Lemon Custard Cake gives us a feeling of a virtual travel to summer. So light, creamy and delicious with the airy souffle-like top.
I’ve made this Lemon Custard Cake three times this week and it has already become the favorite of my family and our guests. When we moved into our new home two weeks ago, our nextdoor neighbour brought a large plate full of very tasty cheese pie slices. It was a great surprise to see that welcome treat when we were so tired of unpacking and cleaning and trying to adapt to the new house. We are lucky to have that neighbor, don’t we?
It’s a tradition here not to give the plate back empty. If your neighbor gives you something on a plate, you should give it back filled with something else. I wanted to make something special for our new neighbor, so I had to wait for a week until we completely settled down and felt ready to make a lemon magic cake.
This custard cake was for our neighbor. I had been planning to make it since I saw Magic Custard Cake on pinterest and I thought the first thing to bake in the new house had to be good enough to make a celebration. This unique cake meets my expectation quite well. I gave the whole cake to our kind neighbor and she said they loved this non-Turkish cake and wanted the recipe.
It is a very light cake and you can have half of it on your own. The ingredients are the same as a regular cake, but the measurements are completely different. I must warn you that you shouldn’t doubt when you see how runny the batter of this magic custard cake is. It is just how it is supposed to be, as runny as milk. It looks like no flour is included in the batter.
The original recipe doesn’t call for lemon zest, but I thought it would give a nice flavor to the custard. I love to add freshly grated lemon zest right on the cake squares before serving to make their scent even stronger as in this Zesty Carrot Cake and in this Lemon Poppy Seed Cake.
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📖 Recipe
Zesty Magic Custard Cake
INGREDIENTS
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder or vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 110 g butter melted
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk lukewarm
- 2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon extra grated lemon zest for topping
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar for dusting
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Grease a 30cmx17cm baking pan and line it with parchment paper.
- Separate eggs whites and yolks.
- Beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff and put aside.
- Whisk egg yolks, vanilla powder and sugar until creamy.
- Add melted butter and mix for half a minute.
- Add the flour and mix it with a spatula until incorporated well.
- Pour the milk gradually and continue beating.
- Add in the egg whites, one third at a time and gently mix with a spatula.
- Fold in the grated lemon zest.
- Pour this very runny batter into the baking dish and bake for 60 minutes.
- Let it cool and dust with powdered sugar.
- Top the slices with freshly grated lemon zest and serve.
- You can wait it in the refrigerator and serve it cold as well.
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
ADDITIONAL INFO
The recipe is slightly adapted from whiteonricecouple’s Magic Custard Cake.
Hilda Wallace says
How do you get the egg whites to mix into the liquid? The recipe says to fold them in, but mine was all bubbly looking. What am I doing wrong. I made the chocolate one.
Zerrin says
Hi Hilda, if you made the chocolate custard cake before and were happy with it, just mix the egg whites in the same way. Add it into the mixture gradually and don't overmix it. Hope this helps.
Fii says
Very delicious! Your photos of this cake and the chocolate version looked too mouthwateringly good not to give them a try tonight! 🙂
My egg whites didn't stiffen quite as much as they were supposed to, and I made only 3/4 of the dough mass because I only had 3 eggs, so my cake was a bit flatter and not quite as custardy inside, but it was still delicious and I'll definitely make this again! (Maybe chocolate next time. Lemon vs. chocolate was a tough choice.)
Zerrin says
Thank you for your nice words! Hope you will love the chocolate version as much. I always have the same dilemma when deciding on which one to bake 🙂
bracha says
thank you, zerrin. you have some beautiful and interesting looking recipes on your site. can you make this cake with non dairy milk like soy or almond milk? thanks
Zerrin says
Hi Bracha! Thanks for your nice words. I've never tried it with non dairy milk, so I'm not sure. I'd love to hear the result if you try.
dina says
I want to try this. looks good!