I made an easy lemon cake in 20 minutes with just 3 ingredients — no flour, oil or butter
This lemon dessert makes for a delicious spring and summertime treat, and there's barely any effort involved. With just three ingredients needed, you're sure to have at least two of them to hand.
Lemon dessert recipes are a real hit for many, and my family absolutely loves them. Having made Mary Berry’s lemon cheesecake and drizzle cake, a lemon mousse, a lemon Swiss roll, a lemon mug cake and a lemon and blueberry loaf cake, this three-ingredient lemon cake is definitely a bake on the simpler side.
This lemon cake recipe, which takes 20 minutes to prep, comes from food blogger Jennifer Lee behind the website Kirbie’s Cravings. It is a flourless chocolate cake, but lemon-flavoured and doesn’t require any oil or butter. While it is described as a cake, the texture isn’t spongy; it’s more on the custard side of things—think basque cheesecake.
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Ingredients
Four large eggs, straight from the fridge
283g of white chocolate
Two lemons, juice and lemon zest
Method
I started by preheating the oven to 160C before greasing and lining the interior of a seven-inch round springform pan with parchment paper.
The first cake-making step was to separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. I placed the egg whites into a large mixing bowl and left them in the fridge until ready to use for a later step.
It was then time to melt the chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Jennifer recommends using chocolate chips, however, I found that they took quite a while to melt, so it’s best to use a bar of chocolate.
To melt it, you can do it either in the microwave or over the stove using the double boiler method.
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To melt in the microwave (this is the method I used), place the chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at full power for one minute. Stir the chocolate with a spatula and then heat again for 30 seconds. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. If chocolate is not completely melted, you can microwave it again in 30-second intervals. I needed two minutes and 30 seconds total using a 900-watt microwave.
After, let the chocolate cool for a few moments until it is still melted and warm but no longer too hot to touch. At this point, I added the egg yolks and stirred with a spatula until they were fully incorporated into the batter.
Then it was time to remove the egg whites from the fridge and beat until stiff peaks formed. I used a handheld whisk for this on the highest speed, which took no more than three minutes.
The next step was to add the egg white mixture to the yellow batter in three parts, one-third at a time. I used a spatula to gently fold it into the yellow batter until no egg white streaks remained.
The batter should look very light and fluffy. I finished off by gently stirring in the lemon juice and zest until just incorporated.
The last step was to pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes. The top of the cake should be lightly browned, and it should feel like a thin, hard shell covering your cake.
I let the cake cool completely overnight in the tin before removing it and dusting with icing sugar. The cake will initially rise quite high but will sink as it cools.
The cake is said to have a more “firmer crumb” if left to sit overnight, however, I found that it still had a “custard-like” texture the next day. Either way, this lemon dessert had a delicious zesty flavour and held together well, considering no flour was used.
