This recipe for Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake turns out two delicious loaf cakes made with sweet Meyer lemons.
Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake
This is a perfectly beautiful cake. It’s so easy to make. And the best part is that it makes two loaves. You can keep one to enjoy, and gift one to a friend (or keep them both your yourself!). I love it best with Meyer lemon curd spread on slices.
🛒 Ingredients Needed:
- cake flour
- baking powder
- Meyer lemons
- granulated white sugar
- eggs
- sour cream
- rum
- salt
- salted butter
✏️ How to make Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake:
*The complete, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans.
- Sift together the flour and baking powder; set aside.
- Place sugar and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl, and rub together until the sugar is lemon-scented and a bit clumpy. Add the eggs and beat with a whisk until the mixture is a light lemon color and thickened a bit. Whisk in the sour cream, then salt, then rum and lemon juice.
- Gently whisk in the flour in four parts, then whisk in the butter in three parts. You’ll have a thick, pourable batter flecked with lemon zest.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Top each loaf with two lemon slices before baking, if desired. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
➡️ Tips and Substitutions:
- 8-inch loaf pans would work best, but you can use 9-inch loaf pans if you don’t mind the loaves a little flatter.
- Be sure to use cake flour. This is cake! And it will give these loaves the best texture.
- Meyer lemons are in season between December and May. Look for them in your market’s produce section (next to the traditional lemons). They are sweeter than regular lemons, and they help with the amazing flavor of this cake.
- Greek yogurt may be substituted for the sour cream.
- If you don’t like to use alcohol in your baking, you can substitute two more tablespoons of the Meyer lemon juice for the rum.
- The lemon slices baked on top are completely optional. You can leave them off, if you’d like.
❤️ What I Love About This Recipe:
- This is a great loaf cake for gifting! It’s always well-received and enjoyed.
- Who doesn’t love lemon? It’s so delicious!
- It’s another great recipe using Meyer lemons during Meyer lemon season.
Favorite Lemon Cake Recipes:
Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake
This recipe turns out two delicious loaves made with sweet Meyer lemons, perfect for spring baking!
Ingredients
- 2⅔ cups cake flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 3 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 6 large eggs
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons rum
- 1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
- 1 pinch salt
- 9 tablespoons (1 stick + 1 tablespoon) salted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 4 additional very thinly slices of Meyer lemon, optional (for topping)
Instructions
LOAVES:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. (8-inch loaf pans would work best, but you can use 9-inch loaf pans if you don't mind the loaves a little flatter.)
- Sift together the flour and baking powder; set aside.
- Place sugar and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl, and rub together until the sugar is lemon-scented and a bit clumpy. Add the eggs and beat with a whisk until the mixture is a light lemon color and thickened a bit. Whisk in the sour cream, then salt, then rum and lemon juice.
- Gently whisk in the flour in four parts, then whisk in the butter in three parts. You'll have a thick, pourable batter flecked with lemon zest.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Top each loaf with two lemon slices before baking, if desired. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice, Calories: 284kcal, Carbohydrates: 41g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 94mg, Sodium: 106mg, Potassium: 65mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 26g, Vitamin A: 377IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 38mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What can you use in place of rum?
Vanilla?
These are wonderful!! I made icing from the leftover lemons’ juice and used that instead. I loved the mixing by hand. The sugar and the lemon zest combination is sooooo fragrant. I weighed out 266 grams of unsifted cake flour and it works perfectly (I lost my sifter.)
Followed directions exactly as given and the cake did not cook properly. I used a hand whisk and am wondering whether I should have just used my mixer. The recipe also says to add flour mix in four parts, then melted butter so I did it that way, all the while thinking I should have been alternating, but I followed the directions to the letter and word and the loaf/bread/cake was “dumb”. It did not taste bad, but it was just “dumb” Further this was my first time trying Meyer lemons (something I’ve been looking forward to), but I didn’t really taste anything special in this loaf/bread/cake. Maybe I need to try again. If anyone knows where I went wrong, let me know.
yummy i added blueberries 1 cup to the second loaf. your photos are fantastic going to try cranberry chicken next
Can’t wait to try this recipe