A couple of weeks ago I made this yellow cake. I saw it from Alison Roman’s second cookbook “Nothing Fancy” and was immediately drawn by its low-key ingredients and promising outcome. And although Alison Roman did oversell the cake a little bit, describing it as one of the best things she’s made, I was just really intrigued by turmeric in a cake. Turmeric?! That yellow, aggressive spice that stains?! I had no idea it could be used for desserts, so here we are.
The ingredients were indeed accessible (so long as you have the turmeric lol). It’s flour, eggs, sugar, butter, and lemon. That’s it! I remember baking a similar cake also by Alison called blueberry yogurt cake. These cakes are more like cake bread than cake cake. Not just because they are baked in a loaf tin but the texture is bread-y than cake-y. I mean you can definitely eat this for breakfast.
Look at those lemons! I never thought I’d love citrus fruits in my dessert but now I’m hooked. The acid just cuts the sweet, making it less cloying. In this recipe, we use the all the lemon parts—the juice (of course), the skin, and even the sliced whole fruit as topping. Speaking of topping, I’d like to highlight how delicious the caramelized lemon on top turned out to be. A sprinkle of sugar on top and it creates a charred coat that I’m pretty sure makes the whole thing smell so good too.
It’s a delicious cake! The turmeric obviously makes it starkly yellow, but taste-wise it’s more lemon than turmeric (not that I’m complaining). It’s a citrus cake. It smells like lemon heaven. It’s great to pair with tea, or if you’re not on a diet, by all means eat it in the morning. Oh and it’s possibly one of the easiest cakes to bake (by far).
Joanne Aika 