It is Sunday and that means cake time. Many Germans have cake with their afternoon coffee on Sundays. They do drink coffee also during the week, often between 3 and 4:30pm, though it varies. They might not always eat cake with their coffee but maybe just a cookie or some fruit.

But Sundays are different. Per Ladenöffnungszeitengesetz (law governing the hours of trading), stores can’t open on Sundays. Obviously, there are exceptions: gas stations are open and so are restaurants and cafés. If you own a shop in a tourist hot spot, like a town by the Baltic Sea, and it’s summer season, you may open your store on Sundays for the tourists. Recently, the rules were loosened just a bit more allowing for a couple of Verkaufsoffene Sonntage (opens for business Sundays). And of course you can’t cut your grass on a Sunday, or if you do you might get a complaint from your neighbor. So what else is there to do than to bake a delicious cake.

I made a poll yesterday to see if I should make an apple or a lemon cake. The verdict was lemon and so I went to the store to get some fresh lemons. I used the organic kind since it is the peel that goes into the cake.

The recipe itself is pretty straight forward and I have to admit I don’t know where exactly it came from. I think I probably copied it from my mother but where she got it from I don’t know.

The cake is a basic Rührteig (sponge mixture) made up of eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and baking powder. It also contains a packet of Vanillezucker (vanilla sugar), and I have the feeling every German cake recipe has at least one of those Vanillezucker in it.

After last Sunday’s (failed) attempt of making a Bienenstich, I already had German to US conversions in place. One packet of Vanillezucker (unless you order them from amazon) is the equivalent to 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

The other ingredients I have converted to the US system, that’s why sometimes it calls for a light cup of something. The nice thing is that you can do anything with a basic batter like this. Add other spices, fruit, cocoa powder etc. It is very versatile.

But let’s start with the Lemon Cake:

Ingredients:

350 gr butter / 3 sticks of butter

350 gr sugar / 1 1/2 c sugar

1 packet of vanilla sugar / 1 tsp vanilla extract

6 eggs (often, German recipes call for medium eggs, if you have large eggs make it 5)

350 gr flour / a light 2 1/2 c flour

3 tsp baking powder

zest from 2 lemons (use more if you like your cake to be more lemony)

Steps:

Mix butter and sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients. I normally stir the batter after adding each ingredient.

You can bake this as a sheet cake or in a loaf pan.

For the sheet cake bake for 20 minutes at 350 F (170 C). If you are baking a loaf increase baking time. Maybe to 40 minutes, until light brown.

Let cool before you add the glaze. For the glaze, mix powdered sugar with hot water and stir until smooth and not too runny. For extra lemon flavor you can add lemon juice. I used some of the juice of the two lemons whose zest I had taken for the batter.

Let me know what you think. It was a big hit in my family.