Lemon cake with labneh and orange blossom water
There are cakes that I simply cannot refuse. Diet or feeling full or not: lemon cake is always good. And if the cake is really well made and mega moist, more than just one slice is devoured quickly. What makes my cake particularly moist? You've probably already noticed it in the title - there's a good portion of fresh labneh in this lemon cake. I'll tell you why this cake also makes me think of homemade lemonade in a moment.
Baking with labneh - to make it nice and juicy.
Even though I still love labneh best in the classic way with a lake of olive oil and a good pinch of za'atar and fresh pita bread - you can actually bake fantastically with the stuff too! With labneh in the batter, you save the pinch of salt in the cake and also add a lovely fresh acidic note to the batter. The fact that labneh is made from high-fat yoghurt certainly won't hurt a juicy cake 😉
Labneh adds another fresh note to the lemon cake and makes it even juicier because of its fat content. But can you really taste the cream cheese? I can't really tell you. I gobble the cake pieces down my throat like a hungry gander and then hiss for more... all joking aside: I don't think you can taste it directly. But indirectly through the fluffy juiciness of the lemon cake.
Lemon cake that tastes like lemonade
When I developed the recipe for this lemon cake, I had the taste of my mother's homemade lemonade on my tongue. I love the wonderfully fresh taste of lemonade and how quickly you can make it. The same goes for the cake. As in the lemonade, the main tones are: lemon, sweet and orange blossom water. So the classic lemon cake always gets a little "lemonade shower" in my house, which makes the sponge cake that much juicier again and gives it a super special aroma. Super refreshing and yet a "little" calorie sin.
Recipe for juicy lemon cake with labneh
Equipment
- Pastry brush
Ingredients
Dough
- 200 g Butter room temperature
- 150 g Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 2 Lemons (grated) Organic
- 1 TBSP Lemon juice
- 100 g Labneh according to recipe
- 230 g Flour
- 50 g ground almonds
- 4 TSP Baking powder
Lemon sauce
- 120 ml Lemon juice Equivalent to approx. 1 - 1.5 large lemons
- 60 g Sugar
- 4 TSP Orange blossom water
Casting
- 120 g Powdered sugar
- 1 TSP Orange blossom water
- 3 TSP Lemon juice
- 3 TL Water
For garnishing
- 20 g chopped pistachios
Preparation
Dough
- Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
- Wash the lemons thoroughly and grate the zest. Then squeeze out the juice (will be needed later).
- Mix flour with baking powder and ground almonds.
- Beat the sugar with the butter until creamy.
- Add the eggs one by one and continue mixing.
- Add the labneh, lemon juice and lemon zest and continue to blend.
- Gradually add the flour mixture and mix briefly to form a smooth dough.
- Grease the loaf tin, pour in the dough and smooth it down.
- Bake the lemon cake for approx. 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Check the dough at the end: Stick a wooden stick/knife into the cake and see if any dough sticks when you pull it out. If raw dough sticks, please let it bake for a few more minutes.
Lemon sauce
- Mix the lemon juice with the sugar and orange flower water until the sugar has dissolved.
- While the cake is still warm, poke many small holes with a chopstick and brush the lemon sauce over the cake until it is all absorbed.
- Allow the cake to cool completely and then remove from the baking tin.
Casting
- Mix the icing sugar with the remaining ingredients until creamy, but still a little count.
- Pour the icing over the cake and spread.
- Optionally garnish with chopped pistachios.
Notes
Be sure to try the cheesecake with za'atar, the tahini buns, the juicy date cake, the chocolatey babka or the chocolate tart with pistachio cream.
Am rather accidentally stumbled on the blog when I googled for "Zatar". Am blown away by the Manakish and if I had not just baked plum cake now, the lemon cake would be up. Great blog with lots of inspiration! Is directly in my feedreader gwandert.
Hello Devona,
thank you very much for your great feedback 🙂 I am very happy that you like it here. I wish you continue to have fun browsing and enjoying.
Kind regards
Rafik