This Lemon Raspberry Cornmeal Cake is a sweet little dessert.
It’s easy to prepare and I can personally attest to the fact that it is delicious any time of the day. It’s pretty, too, with tart jewel-red raspberries suspended in the pale yellow cake.
It’s raspberry season here in California (May-November) and raspberries are reasonably priced in your market. So, this little cake is an economical dessert, too.
Raspberries, by the way, are an aggregate fruit. Each berry is actually made up of about 100 little fruits. (Interesting, right?)
Here’s a bit of history. Raspberries, native to North America and Asia Minor, have been consumed for a very long time. Europeans were enjoying raspberries as early as the 4th Century according to historians and, here in North America, Native Americans were consuming the berries when the colonists arrived. Interestingly, in addition to being a food, raspberries have had wide usage over the ages– as a color in Medieval illuminated manuscripts, as a vinegar to alleviate fevers and coughs, as a potion to tame bewitched horses. They even made their way into ancient mythology where Zeus’ nursemaid, Ida, pricked her fingers on an (originally white) raspberry bush and the raspberries were stained red for eternity.
This Lemon Raspberry Cornmeal Cake is a Yossy Arefi recipe from The New York Times. You can find the original recipe here. Arefi is also the author of two inspired cookbooks, Sweeter Off The Vine and Snacking Cakes. Both books are available at your local bookstore and through Amazon. Both cookbooks have a special place in my cookbook collection and I bake from them often.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Lemon Raspberry Cornmeal Cake
Ingredients
- For the Cake:
- 2 lemons (zested and juice reserved for glaze)
- 3/4 C. granulated sugar (plus 2 T. to sprinkle on top of the cake before baking)
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 C. Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- 1 stick (1/2 C.) unsalted butter (melted)
- 3/4 t. kosher salt
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 C. fine cornmeal (I used white)
- 6 oz. fresh raspberries
- For the glaze:
- 1-2 T. lemon juice
- 3/4 C. sifted powdered sugar
- Pinch of salt
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Step 2 Butter a 9-inch square cake pan and line it with parchment. Leave a couple of inches of parchment hanging over two of the sides of the pan to use as handles to lift the cake out of the pan after it has cooled. This will help you keep the delicate cake from breaking when you lift it.
- Step 3 Zest two lemons and put the zest into a large bowl. Juice the lemons to use later in the glaze. Add sugar and eggs to the zest and whisk for about 30 seconds. You want the mixture to be pale and smooth.
- Step 4 Add yogurt, melted butter, and salt to the egg mixture. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Add baking powder and baking soda. Mix to combine.
- Step 5 Whisk flour and cornmeal together in a small bowl. Add four and cornmeal to the batter and stir until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Be careful that there are no dry flour pockets in your batter.
- Step 6 Fold 2/3 of the fresh raspberries into the batter being careful not to break up the raspberries more than necessary.
- Step 7 Spoon the batter into the parchment-lined pan. Smooth the top. Sprinkle the remaining raspberries over the top of the cake. Sprinkle about 2 T. of reserved sugar over the raspberries and the top of the cake.
- Step 8 Bake cake for about 45 minutes in a 350 degree F. oven. It will be done when the top is a bit puffed, the top of the cake is a pretty brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Step 9 Cool the cake thoroughly on a rack before adding the glaze.
- Step 10 Prepare the glaze by combining lemon juice, sifted powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Adjust the amount of lemon juice in the glaze to get a pourable glaze. Drizzle the glaze over your cake and let the cake sit for a few minutes before cutting to let the glaze solidify a bit.
