“Thank you for letting me invite myself over for cake,” said Jennifer.
“Oh, I thought I had invited you,” I replied, “when we ran into each other on the street the other day.”
She corrected, “Remember, earlier, when I missed Beth’s birthday, I said we’d have to get together for cake very soon.”
“I thought you meant you would invite us to eat a cake that you would bake sometime in the future.”
Jennifer smiled. “No,” she said.
When you have friends this smooth, you need to bake a very delicate and fine-textured cake. Or maybe they need you to bake it. I’m not sure anymore.
Lemon Teacake
It has always bugged me that this “lemon teacake” is made with lime. Sometimes I get mad and substitute another lemon for the lime. That’ll show ‘em.
1⅔ c flour
1 t baking powder
½ t salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
½ c milk
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 c sifted powdered sugar
1 lemon, juiced
Heat the oven to 325° and generously grease an 8½ x 4½ loaf pan.
Stir together the dry ingredients.
Cream the butter and sugar, then mix in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the dry ingredients and the milk alternately, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the lime zest and lime juice (strain it!), then mix the batter thoroughly.
Spread the batter into the pan and bake 55 minutes to an hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool the cake in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk the lemon juice (strain it!) with the powdered sugar.
At the 10-minute mark, pour the glaze all over the cake in the pan, letting it run down the sides. Try to get glaze over the entire surface of the cake crust. Cool another 15 minutes. (The cake should sponge up all the glaze as it cools.)
Cover the pan with a plate and invert it. Remove the pan, cover the cake with a serving plate, and invert again. So pretty! Serve it with blueberries and vanilla ice cream, maybe.
