Stovetop lemon curd cake
By:
Emily Gussin
Food producer and sustainability lead, delicious.
- Published: 2 Apr 24
- Updated: 2 Apr 24
Sitting somewhere between a steamed pudding and a traditional cake, this stovetop cake has a soft but dense texture that’s pleasing topped with lashings of lemon curd. It’s ideal if you’re trying to cut down on your energy bills, as it uses less energy than baking a cake in the oven. And it’s also useful if you simply don’t have an oven to hand!
Next time: try our easy lemon drizzle loaf cake.
Ingredients
- 100ml sunflower oil, plus extra to grease
- 160g self-raising flour
- 75g golden caster sugar
- 50g light soft brown sugar
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 medium free-range eggs
- 60g soured cream
- Finely grated zest 2 lemons
- 80ml just-boiled water
For the icing
- 250g icing sugar, sifted
- 20g unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ tbsp lemon juice
- 80g lemon curd
Specialist kit
- 18cm round cake tin
Method
- Grease the base of the cake tin with oil and line with baking paper. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugars and salt. In a jug, whisk the 100ml oil and eggs until combined, then whisk in the soured cream and lemon zest.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones, then stir to combine. Pour in the just-boiled water, then mix to combine. Tip the batter into the prepared tin, then cover tightly with foil.
- Put a crumpet ring (or a coil of rolled-up foil) in the base of a pan (one with a lid) that’s larger than the cake tin. Pour in enough water to come two thirds of the way up the ring/coil, then sit the cake tin on top, making sure the water doesn’t touch the cake tin. Bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook for 35-40 minutes until set on top (to have a look, lift the edge of the foil around the cake tin). Remove the pan from the heat, leaving the cake tin in the pan with the lid on (to finish off cooking) until cool. Remove the cake from the tin.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, combine the icing sugar and butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the lemon juice with 1 tbsp hot water, then gradually start mixing this into the icing, bit by bit, until it reaches a spreadable consistency (you may not need it all). Spread the icing over the top of the cake with a palette knife, creating a textured surface. Drizzle the lemon curd on top.
- Recipe from April 2024 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 445kcals
- Fat
- 18g (4.5g saturated)
- Protein
- 4.1g
- Carbohydrates
- 67g (52g sugars)
- Fibre
- 0.8g
- Salt
- 0.4g
delicious. tips
Easy swaps Try making the cake using oranges instead of lemons, and top the icing with marmalade rather than lemon curd.
Why this recipe saves energy Heating a large oven for just one item isn’t very energy efficient and, although the cake cooks on a hob for about the
same time as it would in the oven, the hob uses much less energy (think how long an oven stays warm for after you’ve used it, compared with the hob).
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