Lemon Spice Visiting Cake (also known as Swedish Visiting Cake) is a traditional gift to give when you go to visit someone’s home or you have someone over to your own home. It has some of the most amazing flavors in it- including lemon, spice, cream, and sugar.
One great thing about this cake is that it is built to last a long time. Even if you make it on Tuesday and you haven’t finished it until the weekend (in which case, I’m worried about you because it is that good), you can actually slice it like toast and toast it. When you do this, it will have more of a lemon taste to it.
It doesn’t matter what type of baker you are, you can make this really easy cake. You don’t need to use any machines if you are just a beginner or you can try to add your own elements if you are an expert.
Lemon Spice Visiting Cake Recipe
A lemon spice cake is better when it sits for at least a day before you eat it. If you are planning to use this as a traditional visiting cake, you should give yourself time to let it sit. However, once you have made it a few times, you should be able to make it quickly enough that you can whip it up in just a few minutes.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar (plus more to sprinkle on top right before baking)
- Grated zest of one lemon
- 2 eggs
- 25 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon high-quality vanilla
- 5 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 stick melted butter, cooled
- 25 cup sliced almonds
Procedure:
- Combine the lemon zest and the sugar in a medium-sized bowl. You want to massage this mixture with your fingers for a minute or so. This will start to release the oils in the lemon zest and cause your kitchen to smell absolutely amazing.
- One at a time, fully whisk the eggs into the bowl. Take your time to ensure that the sugar and zests start to break down.
- Whisk in the salt, vanilla, and almond extract one at a time. Once again, make sure you whisk extremely well.
- Grab a spatula and stir in the flour a quarter cup at a time. Make sure to use a folding motion with the spatula.
- Fold the butter into the mixture. Slice the butter into small pats to get the best distribution.
- Stir until combined and then stir a little more.
- Grease all the sides and bottom of a 9-inch cake pan. You can also use a cast-iron skillet, but the pan is a more foolproof method.
- Pour the batter into the pan, jiggling slightly to eliminate any air pockets.
- Place sliced almonds over the top.
- Add a generous sprinkling of sugar over the top.
- Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. When you check to see if it is done, look for golden edges and a slightly “crusty” appearance around the top.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for around 5 minutes.
- Take a knife and run it around the edges of the pan to release it.
- Cut from the pan or flip it onto another plate, if you so choose.
That’s it- it is a really simple recipe. You can try to add icing, marmalades, or something else to it if you are feeling inventive! If you really enjoy this recipe, you can even zest lemons ahead of time and freeze them. You will need to massage them more in that first step, but they do store extremely well.
When you go to serve this cake, it is absolutely fantastic with tea or coffee. Make sure to serve it fresh and it can even be served warm! This is a fantastic recipe to keep in your back pocket because you can make it in about 10 minutes and it doesn’t require anything strange-you probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen right now.
Whether you are getting visitors, you are going to be the visitor, or you just want to have a fruit, sweet, and absolutely delicious smelling cake in your kitchen-try out this recipe. For more fun, you can even make this recipe into muffins or cupcakes simply by putting them into a different shaped pan. You could even make loaves-get creative!
