I blame my grandmother for my love of lemons and lemony desserts. She used to make the best lemon meringue pie from scratch. But if you are looking for a lemon fix in a shorter amount of time and less frou frou then this light and fluffy lemon crumb cake will surely fill your sweet on lemon craving.

Lemon Crumb Cake

Ingredients:

2 lemons
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cups skim milk
3/4 cup margarine

Directions:

Wash lemons thoroughly under water. Lightly grate the peel off both lemons into a bowl and set aside. Use a mini juicer to collect juice from both lemons and set aside (compost rind).

In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and grated lemon. I use a whisk to get the ingredients well combined (if you are into sifting go for it. I don't sift). Cut in the margarine (or butter) with a pastry blender. If you don't have a pastry blender you can hold two butter knives in one hand and cut through the margarine and flour. It is awkward but eventually works. When the margarine is blended into the flour it will look crumbly. Remove a well rounded cup full of crumbly flour mixture and set aside in a small bowl.

Beat egg, add milk, and lemon juice; very quickly add it to large bowl of flour mixture before the juice can curdle the milk. Mix flour and juice ingredients by hand with a wooden spoon until it is just combined. The cake batter will be thick. Use a spatula to scrape the batter into a greased deep casserole dish or 10" x 9" baking dish. Using the small bowl with the crumbled flour that you set aside earlier, sprinkle it on top of the cake trying to cover it evenly.

Bake the cake in the center of a 350 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes. Check center with toothpick to make sure it is done before removing. It is important to use a deep dish when making this cake as it puffs up nicely.

This lemon crumb cake recipe is lovely served warm with a cup of tea (or a glass of milk). It makes approximately twelve servings.

Photos of lemon cake , copyright M. E. Wood

M. E. Wood is the Cooking from Scratch Editor at Foodie Momma. She lives in Eastern Ontario, Canada. If you are going to find this eclectic reader and writer anywhere it is probably at her computer. For more information visit her Squidoo Who page. 

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