Swedish Lemon Visiting Cake

I love baked goods with cardamom. They remind me of Sweden. I made this cake for the first time this week and we all loved it. It baked evenly and yielded a moist, dense, lemony loaf. The recipe was posted on the NYT website and attributed to Dorie Greenspan. I have made a couple minor tweaks based on my own ingredients. (The original recipe also had a marmalade glaze that I found unnecessary, but if that appeals you can get the original recipe online.) Best served with afternoon tea (or coffee)!

Swedish Lemon Visiting Cake

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/4 tsp b powder

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 c sugar*

1 large lemon

4 large eggs, room temp

1/2 c greek yogurt**

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

5 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter 8 1/2 inch loaf pan, dust with flour, and place on baking sheet.

Whisk together flour, b power, cardamom, ginger and salt.

Put sugar in a large bowl. Grate zest of lemon over sugar. Rub sugar and zest together until mixture is moist and aromatic. 

Squeeze lemon to yield 3 tbsp juice and set aside.

Add eggs to sugar one at a time, whisking after each addition. Whisk in juice then yogurt. Using whisk, gently stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients in two additions.

Stir vanilla into melted butter then blend into batter.

Scrape batter into loaf pan.

Bake 70-75 minutes, covering loosely with foil if it browns too quickly. 

Transfer to a rack, let rest for 5 minutes, loosen with a knife and invert onto a rack.

Cool to room temperature.

* original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups

** can use heavy cream