Easy Lemon Cake | Sugared & Stirred (2024)

FAQs

What makes a cake moist? ›

Cutting too much lemon for a recipe can result in a dish that is excessively sour or acidic. This can overpower the other flavors and make the dish unbalanced.

Sprinkle in lemon or orange zest to give your box cake batter a hint of zing. You can also replace the water with lemon, orange or lime juice or soda. Use this method with any type of cake mix, but it works best with lemon, yellow and white cake.

Not to mention oil is cheaper and easier to work with. Butter will always provide superior flavor and that melt-in-your-mouth texture. In many recipes, combining the two gives the best of both worlds. That's what I landed on for my Red Velvet Cake recipe!

Why does oil give cake superior texture? Butter is 18% water, so when the batter is baked, some of its liquid evaporates. Replacing the water from the butter with oil means there's more fat left in the cakes to ensure tenderness.

To add extra lemon flavor to baked goods, use 1 tablespoon lemon juice powder for each cup of flour. For lemon glaze, use 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup of confections' sugar.

Gelen says rubbing lemon zest and sugar together for 2 to 3 minutes is the key in getting a strong lemony flavor in your homemade concoction. Once the zest and sugar are combined, Gelen mixes it with freshly squeezed lemon juice to finish off making the base and serves it over water, ice, and a few lemon slices.

The leavening power of baking soda is about three to four times stronger than baking powder. This means that you need a lot less baking soda in your recipes. If a recipe calls for baking soda and you only have baking powder, you need to use the right baking soda to baking powder conversion.

Add an Extra Egg

Most cake mixes call for two to three eggs. Just one more egg will add extra moisture, fat, and a little protein, which means the cake will be softer and less likely to overbake and dry out in the oven.

Should you beat eggs before adding to cake mix? ›

Martina says, “Late in the mixing stage, eggs will incorporate better if you lightly beat them before adding to the batter. The finished cake may be slightly shorter than expected, but its flavor and tenderness shouldn't be affected.” For egg-leavened cakes, the eggs are crucial.

Milk's fat and protein add tenderness, structure, and flavor to a cake — all great attributes you want in your baking!

If you leave the butter out, it will affect the taste slightly and will cause the cupcake to stay smaller and more dense, as you noted, but it will still be perfectly edible and probably quite tasty.

Canola oil is, without doubt, one of the best types of oil for baking. It's preferred in many recipes since it has the most neutral flavor compared to other types of oil. It also tends to be lighter in flavour, so it will not negatively affect the baked product's flavor and texture.

Soak your cake in milk or cream.

Simply brush on a few tablespoons of milk or cream to the top of your dry cake or, for a truly indulgent finish, follow recipes like one-bowl tres leches poke cake, baked and soaked in a combination of whole milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk.

Yes, you can substitute milk for water when preparing SuperMoist cake mixes, however, the cake may be slightly drier than if prepared with water. Also keep in mind that milk will add calories and change the nutrition slightly.

Applesauce acts much like the fat. It keeps the flour protein from mixing completely with the wet ingredients and forming a rubbery, dense texture. This is what does applesauce do in baking.

Sugar easily binds with water, which accomplishes two main things. 1) It locks in moisture, keeping your baked goods from drying out; and 2) It inhibits the development of gluten which keeps your cookies, cakes and sweet breads softer. Variances in sugar type will create different outcomes here.