Italian Fresh Cream Lemon Cake
This Italian Lemon Cake, is made with fresh Cream and lemons. It makes a tasty breakfast or snack cake. Dress it up with some fresh fruit and whipped cream to make the perfect dessert. A fast, easy and delicious Lemon Cake recipe.
This is one of the first Italian cakes that I ever made and still one of the Italian’s favorites. It’s simple and with a dusting of powdered sugar it’s exactly how he likes it!
Recipe Ingredients
- Flour – all purpose or cake/pastry flour
- Baking powder
- Salt – if you use unsalted butter then add a bit more salt
- Butter – softened
- Eggs – room temperature
- Egg yolk – room temperature
- Sugar – powdered, icing or also known as confectioners’ sugar
- Cream – heavy, whole or whipping cream with at least 30% fat
- Lemon – lemon zest
- Lemon juice – fresh lemon juice is best
- Vanilla – vanilla extract or lemon flavor if you prefer
How to make homemade Cake/Pastry flour
For every cup of all purpose flour, remove two tablespoons and replace with two tablespoons of corn starch. Be sure to sift the flour and cornstarch together a couple of times, this way it is sure to be properly combined and lump free.
Cake flour in cakes will give you a very tender texture and fine crumb, it will also help the cake to rise.
Why use room temperature ingredients?
When at room temperature, eggs, butter, and other dairy ingredients form an emulsion which traps air. While baking in the oven, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy baked good.
So be sure to remove the ingredients from the fridge 45-60 minutes before baking, sooner if you have a cool house.
How to Make an Easy Lemon Cake
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Melt the butter in a small pot or microwave, and let the butter cool.
In a large mixing bowl on medium speed or the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, yolk and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2-3 minutes.
With a spatula gently fold the flour mixture, alternating with the cream into the egg mixture, keep folding until mixture is completely combined, then gently fold in the zest, vanilla, melted butter and lemon juice.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean or or a few crumbs attached.
Let the cake cool a bit in the pan then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered/icing sugar, before serving. This cake would also be delicious served with some whipped cream and fresh blueberries!
How do you prevent your bundt cake from sticking to the pan?
Grease the pan all over, into the crevices, and then dust with flour. Dump out any excess flour. This should allow the pan to release the cake nicely when it is turned over.
How high should you fill a bundt pan?
You should leave a few inches from the top to allow for rising, which is about ⅔ full.
What does an Italian cake taste like?
I find Italian cakes to be less sweet than traditional North American cakes, the crumb is more compact and sometimes not as moist. That’s why they make the best breakfast or snack cakes to be enjoyed with a cappuccino or an afternoon tea.
This cake has the same texture as my Easy Yogurt Cake it is actually quite similar to a Pound Cake.
Italians don’t usually serve cake for dessert. Unless of course they make a cake such as a Tiramisu or a Fancy Cake for a birthday. In fact dessert isn’t very common. They prefer to serve fruit or even a fresh fruit salad.
Different ways to serve the Fresh Cream Lemon Cake
If you prefer to make the cake in a 9 inch cake pan, you could slice it through the centre to make it into a layer cake. Fill it with a simple Italian Pastry Cream , or even a Lemon Curd, or a simple whipped cream filling or even topping with some fresh berries, it would make a simple but perfect after dinner dessert.
You could even add a simple Powdered Sugar Glaze or lemon glaze rather than a dusting of powdered sugar. I don’t think I would use a buttercream frosting or a lemon cream cheese frosting as I think they could be too overpowering for this cake. But it’s up to you.
How to store a Homemade Cake
The cake should be stored in an airtight container or a covered cake dish. It will keep at room temperature for approximately 3-4 days.
The cake can also be frozen. Wrap the cooled cake (or slice the cake and freeze the slices individually), tightly in plastic and place in a freezer safe bag or container. It will keep for up to three months in the freezer.
I love lemons, I think it is one of the best citrus fruits for baking. Lemon bread, Lemon Cheesecake or one of my all time favourites, Italian Lemon Sorbet.
Italian Fresh Cream Lemon Cake is fast and really tasty, all it needs is a little dusting of icing sugar/powdered sugar and it is perfect. Enjoy!
Italian Fresh Cream Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour or cake/pastry flour (258 grams total)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch teaspoon salt
- 7 tablespoons butter (melted)
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 large yolk room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups icing/powdered sugar
- 2/3 cup whole/heavy or whipping cream room temperature (at least 30% fat content)
- 1 zest of one lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoons lemon juice fresh
For room temperature remove the ingredients from the fridge approximately 45-60 minutes before using.
TOPPING
- 2-3 tablespoons icing / powdered sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C). Lightly grease and flour a 9 1/2 inch bundt cake pan (24 cm) (I'm sure a 9 inch/23 cm round cake pan would work).
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt set aside.
- Melt the butter in a small pot or microwave, and let the butter cool.
- In a large mixing bowl on medium speed or the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, yolk and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2-3 minutes.
- With a spatula gently fold the flour mixture, alternating with the cream into the egg mixture, keep folding until mixture is completely combined, then gently fold in the zest, vanilla ,melted butter and lemon juice.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean or or a few crumbs attached.
- Let the cake cool 15-20 minutes in the pan then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered/icing sugar, before serving. This cake would also be delicious served with some whipped cream and fresh blueberries!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Republished from December 24, 2015.
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I was so excited to find this recipe!! My Girl Scout troop picked Italy for our annual World Thinking Day country and I was looking for an easy food my 10 year old GS could make! This fits the bill. We will be making it on Saturday. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Also, do you think you could bake two cakes at a time?
Do you mean double the recipe? If so I don’t see why not. Let me know how it goes.
Hi Beth, oh great, hope you and the Girls enjoy it. Happy baking.
I have a rather silly question that I may have missed the answer to. Is the additional tablespoon of flour to be used for dusting the pan or is it to go into the cake batter? Thank you! I’m excited to make this!
Hi Veronica, yes the additional tablespoon of flour does go into the cake batter. Hope you enjoy it, let me know. Have a great day.
I love lemon cake and this sounds so delicious! Yum!
Thanks so much it is really good. Have a great Sunday.
Hi Rosemary!
I made this cake yesterday and enjoyed it today with blackberry gelato. The texture of the cake came out a bit different than I expected, but I found it to be absolutely delicious. The order of mixing the ingredients was interesting- it was almost like a cookie dough at first then I added the butter and bam- cake mixture.
I will certainly make this recipe again! I think I will add in some lemon extract, as people have mentioned before, for a more lemon-y flavor.
Thanks again for a great recipe!
Hi Jessica, so glad you enjoyed it, and that blackberry gelato sounds amazing. Have a great week.
I’m making this right now for Easter tomorrow. There is no mention what you do with the cream. Do you put it in with the egg / sugar mixture initially. Thanks for clarifying. It’s in the oven-hope it turns out!
Hi Jamie, if you look on the instructions #5 I wrote “In a medium bowl whisk together flour,baking powder and salt, then alternating with the cream gently fold into egg mixture with a spatula”, let me know how it turns out. Hope you enjoy it! Happy Easter.
I made this yesterday for a family gathering. It was delicious and fresh tasting! Very much like what I (as an American) think of as a scone. Perfect for tea/coffee, with a great crumbly texture! Thanks for the recipe
Hi Melissa, so glad you enjoyed it. Have a great day.
I must try this now! Butter, I’m assuming, is salted? And thanks a million times for the metric measurements! Our silly American cups and such aren’t very accurate, and using weights also saves on dirty dishes.
Hi Cheryl, let me know how you like it. Yes salted butter, I think I have seen unsalted butter twice here! And yes metric is so much more accurate. The less dirty dishes the better. 🙂
Hi,
I made this cake last week and brought it to work and everyone raved about it. It was gone in less than 2 hours. I added 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon juice in the batter and followed the rest of the recipe. I will definitely make it again! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Beth, so glad you all enjoyed it. Good idea with the lemon juice. Have a great week.
Hi , I’m really like the recipes , but there is one point I don’t understand , is it the point 5 . Do you add the flour mixture and the cream together ! Then add in the egg mixture
Or what ?
Thank you ❤️????
Hi Nouf, what you do is alternating with the flour mixture and the cream (start with the flour mixture) gently fold it into the egg mixture, then fold in the peel, vanilla and melted butter. Hope that helps. Have a great Sunday. 🙂
Do you add the whole egg ?
Hi Halie, yes the whole egg.
has anyone tried subbing the flour with white rice flour or something similar in an organic flour? thanks.
Hi Shirley, I haven’t heard of anyone subbing the flour, but I will let you know if I do.
I feel like the lemon flavor in this must be very suttle, by just using some zest? I really love lemon I hope it shows thru
Hi Joyce, they say that “Lemon juice adds both lemon flavor and sourness whereas the zest only adds the lemon flavor”, remember when you are adding juice you are also adding extra liquid. And you want to be careful with adding juice to this recipe because you don’t want to curdle the cream, one reader mentioned adding lemon extract instead of vanilla, I think I would go with that, or add the zest to 1 1/2 lemons instead of one. Also there is more lemon flavour in the zest than in the juice, you decide, and I would love to know how it comes out.
Could this be made as a cake with a fruit or cheese filling between layers of the cake?
Hi Jasmine, sure I bet it would be amazing. Let me know.
I read in a different comment, that you could substitute milk for heavy cream. Could you also substitute half and half for the heavy cream? This sounds delicious!
Hi M, if you substitute milk then you have to add extra butter, but I think a substitute of 1 for 1, half and half for heavy cream would work. Let me know how it comes out.
Do you think if I used half and half instead of the cream it would still turn out OK?
Hi Judy, I think half and half would work. Let me know how it is.