This is a cake built for fika — the Swedish habit of stopping properly for coffee and something sweet, rather than drinking it at a desk. It is baked in a sheet pan under a cinnamon crumb, and the lemon is what keeps it from being just another coffee cake.
Cake ingredients
- 1/4 lb butter, softened (1 stick)
- 1½ cups sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 2½ cups flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 dash salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
My grandmother says to squeeze the juice from only half a lemon, and use just a few pinches of zest.
Crumb topping ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 lb butter, softened (1 stick)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Cream together the butter and sugar, adding the egg yolks gradually.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the batter. Stir.
- Add the milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Stir.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter.
- Pour into a 13 x 9 baking pan.
- For the topping, mix the dry ingredients, then cut in the butter with a pastry blender or the back of a fork until it resembles crumbs.
- Scatter the crumbs over the unbaked cake.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
A note on the lemon
The recipe as written calls for a whole lemon. The grandmother who handed it down disagreed, and halved it. Both versions work — a whole lemon gives a sharper cake that stands up to strong coffee, half gives something gentler. Worth deciding which you are after before you start zesting.