Lemon Kladdkaka – Moist or Gooey Swedish Cake

Kladdkaka is a Swedish cake that is very moist or gooey, so that in some instances the centre is almost runny.  I have made Chocolate Kladdkaka in the past and enjoyed it immensely.  Since I had been using a lot of lemon zest I had a surfeit of lemons, so after making some lemon cordial I decided to make Lemon Kladdkaka as well, with just a little of the remaining lemon juice.

It is very simple to make, and it all happens very quickly as everything is mixed together into a runny batter.  Then it only takes up to 25 minutes to bake.  Baking time is dependent on how moist or gooey you want the cake to be. For me I like it to hold together but still be moist so I err on the longer, 25 minutes than the shortest time of 18 minutes.  This cake is thin, it doesn’t rise much at all. If it does rise it will probably settle back as it cools.

My Lemon Kladdkaka turned out very well indeed, just exactly as I hope it would.  As you can see from the photo below the top has a slight crust and the cake itself is still very moist indeed, but it is still cooked through.

As for taste, it is hard to beat anything with lemon in so this is delightful.  

Kladdkaka never looks very pretty, so a dusting of icing sugar on the top helps in the presentation.

Ingredients:

• 150g(11 scant tbsp)butter
• 250g (1 1/4 cup)caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 150g(1 cup + heaped tbsp) plain flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest from one lemon
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• Icing sugar for dusting when cooled.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C/155C Fan/347F
2. Grease and line the base and sides of a 23cm springform or loose bottomed cake tin. (larger is fine too it will be a thinner cake). It may be ok to just grease and flour the tin but i prefer to line it.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and add the sugar, stirring it in.
5. Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest and lemon juice and stir in.
6. Add the eggs and stir in.
7. Add the flour and stir all together until the batter is smooth.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
9. Bake in the oven for between 18 and 25 minutes.  The length of time will depend on how ‘wet’ you want the cake to be.  The longer you bake it the less gooey the centre will be.  It the c
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little before turning out onto a cooling rack.
11. When cooled sprinkle with a little icing sugar if you wish.