Triple Lemon Cake

Well, I was really craving this when I was searching through the endless pages of tastespotting.com (which is really an amazing site for finding recipes--I entice you all to go check it out!).  However, if you are like me and living in New Zealand during the winter time (or something like that) I found it rather difficult to find delicious lemons in my grocery store.  Instead, I simply used just regular lemon juice, and found that the flavour was still quite excellent.  So for all of you lemon sticklers, you can wait for the season, just let me know if you think it makes any difference! :) 

Cake:

1 1/2 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C milk

1 C sugar 

1/2 C canola oil

3 eggs

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon extract

Syrup:

1/3 C sugar

1/3 C lemon juice

Glaze:

1 TB lemon juice

1/2 C powdered (icing) sugar

1/8 tsp vanilla extract

milk

Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C).  To begin the cake base, sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.  In a separate large bowl, combine milk, sugar, and canola oil.  Add eggs one at a time.  Next add lemon zest, vanilla, and 1/4 tsp lemon extract (the amount of extract can be upped if you don't feel that it's lemon-y enough!).  Finally add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir.

Pour this mixture into a well-sprayed loaf pan (or a silicone one if you are so lucky to have one!) and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick can come out clean from the center.

During the last 5-10 minutes of baking, heat the sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly.  Set aside while you remove the cake from your oven.  Let the cake stand for 5 minutes, then drizzle with lemon syrup over the top and sides, allowing it to be soaked up by the cake.  This is will make the cake rich and moist!

Once the cake is finally cooled, mix the lemon juice, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a small bowl.  Once you have reached a consistency that you like (if it's too thick try using some milk to thin it out), use a piping bag or fill a zip-lock bag with the mixture and cut a small hole on the corner for piping.  Drizzle the mixture lightly over the top of the cake to add a little zing! 

Enjoy! :)

Adapted recipe from: http://www.onelovelylife.com/?p=1846