There are a few basic recipes that every chef or home cook needs in their arsenal and this is one of them. Cakes are usually baked for occasions like birthdays or holidays and a lot of those cakes are made using a boxed cake mix you buy from the store. Making a cake from scratch at home is not only easier than whipping up a boxed cake but it's also quicker and cheaper because it uses basic ingredients that everyone has in their pantry (flour, butter, eggs, sugar, etc.). You can also flavor your homemade cake instead of limiting yourself to the flavors that are in the store. So you could add spices and grated carrots to this cake batter and have carrot cake or subsitute granulated sugar for brown sugar, add fresh blueberries, and sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top and have a blueberry coffee cake. So the possibilities are limitless when you make your own cake from scratch at home.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 lemon, zest and juice
Preheat oven to 350ºF
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
Add one egg at a time to the mixture then add the flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract and stir until everything is incorporated
Pour the cake batter into a greased, parchment lined loaf pan or cake pan
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when it's inserted into the cake
Cool completely and mix the powdered sugar, lemon zest, and 2 tbsp. lemon juice and drizzle over the cake
Serve with tea or coffee