Tangy Valentine Lemon Butter Cake

The Straits Times ran a series of DIY projects recently in response to the current 'cheap is chic' media climate. One of the DIY projects featured was a recipe for Orange Butter Cake provided by Judy Koh of Creative Culinaire . I had saved a cut out of the recipe as I wanted to try it out. Before I had the time to do so, my colleague TT tried out the recipe and provided feedback that it was difficult to incorporate the egg yolk butter mixture with the egg whites. Bearing in mind TT's experience with the batter, I made a slight adjustment to the recipe to make the butter mixture less thick. I also substituted the orange juice and zest with lemon.

This cake was done with the help of my older daughter as a Valentine's Day gift for hubby. She was my bowl holder, manual whisker, flour sifter and lemon juice extractor. :) We presented the cake to him when he returned home in the evening. But hubby gave me a bigger surprise with a bouquet of flowers *wide grin*


Lemon Butter Cake

160 gm butter (Golden Churn)
10 gm sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 tsp lemon essence
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon zest
100 gm cake flour (Phoon Huat)
1/2 tsp baking powder
35 - 40 ml lemon juice
4 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
80 gm sugar

1) Cream softened butter and 10gm sugar (The recipe called for the use of electric mixture, but I used a manual balloon whisk)
2) When the butter and sugar are well combined and the mixture is a whittish shade, add egg yolks one at a time, beating till just incorporated
3) Add lemon essence, vanilla essence and lemon zest
4) Sift together flour and baking powder
5) Add the flour and lemon juice in 3 alternative batches to the butter mixture
6) In a clean and dry bowl, add cream of tartar to 4 egg whites and beat
7) Once egg whites have turned white, gradually add the sugar. Continue beating until soft peaks are formed
8) Fold egg whites into butter mixture in 3 batches (be careful not to deflate the egg whites as the butter mixture is rather thick)
9) Pour mixture into a greased and lined 18cm cake tin.
10) Bake in 160C oven for 35 min. Check doneness with clean skewer test (Note: Original recipe calls for 180C oven and baking time of 45min

If Icing is preferred;
Cream 120gm cream cheese and 40gm icing until smooth. Add colouring if desired and spread onto cooled cake