A lovely light lemon cake, very simple to make when you don't feel like making something more elaborate. It's good either with or without icing.
This was really, really good. The texture was fabulous - light bust very moist. I subtituted the lemon extract with about 2 tbsp lemon juice and the rind of 1/2 a lemon, and the shortening with unsalted butter. Oh, and I used skim milk. : ) I'm giving this cake four stars because I felt what really made it amazing (even my father went back for seconds! unheard of!) was the lemon glaze I topped it with (just mix lemon juice, confectioners sugar, and lemon rind) and the lemon ricotta creme I served on the side. The combination was oustanding. For the ricotta creme, I just threw about a cup of ricotta (part skim), tbsp lemon juice, lemon rind from one lemon, 1 tbsp half and half, and maybe 2 tbsp sugar? because you can throw it all in the blender, you can really just adjust to your liking. Wonderful recipe. This is probably the new family favorite! - 26 Apr 2008 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
Excellent cake-very moist. I made a couple of substitutions. I didn't have cake flour, so I did 1 3/4 all purpose flour, 1/4 corn starch. Also didn't have shortening, so I used butter instead. I used the zest and juice of two lemons instad of the extract (although possibly didn't need that much zest). Only had skim milk on hand, which worked fine. I iced it with a lemon icing and topped with strawberries. Yum! - 23 Oct 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
thanks for the great recipe! it's wonderful. however, i would liek to suggest some additions to this recipe. can try adding some lemon zest and fresh lemon juice in place of the lemon extract for a nice lemony taste. - 10 Jun 2006 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)