Strawberry-Lemon Loaf Cake

By Millie Peartree

Published July 28, 2021

  • Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Jerrie-Joy Redman-Lloyd.
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
4(1,668)
Comments
Read comments

This cake is summer in a loaf pan. When baked, strawberries can become sour and a little gummy. Here, berries are macerated with sugar first to remove some of their liquid and concentrate their flavor. (Don’t use frozen strawberries. Keep those for your smoothie!) The lemon icing adds a nice finish, to balance and bolster the cake’s tart-sweetness. Have it as dessert or a snack, but it’s especially good at breakfast with hot coffee or tea. 

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Ingredients

Yield:One 9-inch loaf

FOR THE CAKE

  • Nonstick cooking spray

  • 1 cup/150 grams diced strawberries 

  • 1 cup/200 grams plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

  • 1 ½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour

  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

  • 1 cup/227 grams sour cream, at room temperature

  • ½ cup/110 grams vegetable oil

  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature

  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FOR THE LEMON GLAZE

  • 1 cup/123 grams confectioners’ sugar

  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

  2. Step 2

    In a small bowl, toss the strawberries with 1 tablespoon sugar to macerate while you prepare the cake batter.

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl, combine the flour, lemon zest, baking powder, salt and remaining 1 cup sugar. Whisk to combine. In a second large bowl, combine the sour cream, oil, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.

  4. Step 4

    Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir gently to mix. Lift the macerated berries out of their liquid and add them to the batter. Gently fold in the berries until evenly incorporated.

  5. Step 5

    Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. If it looks to be browning on top too much, tent with aluminum foil. Cool it in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, then unmold the cake carefully and transfer to the rack to cool completely.

  6. Step 6

    Make the glaze: In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar with the lemon zest and juice and stir until smooth. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake. Let stand until set.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
1,668 user ratings
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Comments

Gary T

I didn't read all the notes from others so someone else could have suggested this, but I used some of the liquid from the macerated strawberries along with a reduced portion of the lemon juice in the glaze. Why throw away all that flavor? It also makes for a nice pinkish glaze.

Marsha

This looks like the glorious lemon drizzle cake I’ve made twice this summer, although mine was vegan. As with all good lemon drizzle cakes, you make lots of small holes in the top of the cake just after you take it out of the oven. Then you drizzle a lemon simple syrup over the cake, concentrating on those holes. When it’s cool, you it glaze it just as with this recipe. I decorated the cake with lemon zest and sliced strawberries. Everyone loved it.

Sumi

Careful with the advice to throw in extra strawberries as they add more water and can screw up the texture of the cake. I had a bunch of strawberries and so I added roughly 2 c of strawberries without thinking that fully through. No surprise, my cake was overly moist/spongy.

Lin

I used a couple of personal sized packages of dried berries (think raisins) with cherries, strawberries, and blueberries. It was wonderful. Very sweet recipe.

JohnnyJ

Made it the first time and it was a disaster. Maybe I did something wrong? But I did follow the directions to the letter, but it was too soggy, tasted great, but wouldn’t hold together. And the tester came out clean , and I baked for 70 mins. But I read some other comments, and refusing to admit defeat, fired up the oven again and went with the butter instead of oil, and blotted the berries before adding to the batter. With the melted butter, the batter was thicker, and the berries didn’t sink, And it wasn’t too damp this time. I also used the juice from the berries in the glaze, which I don’t think made a huge difference in flavor, but added a pretty pink color to it. I’ll be making this again soon.

Sharon

If baking in a 9” springform pan rather than a loaf pan, how long should it take to bake?

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