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Dessert

Lemon Crumb Cake

A moist lemon cake topped with a crumb mixture of flour, sugar, lemon peel, and cinnamon.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Lemon Crumb Cake

Oven325°F
Timeabout 40 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

  2. Lightly butter and flour an 8‑inch square baking pan.

Make the crumb and batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugars, lemon peel, and cinnamon.

  2. Add oil and lemon juice and mix until flour is evenly moistened and mixture forms crumbs.

  3. Set aside 1 cup of the crumb mixture for topping.

  4. In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream, egg, vanilla, baking powder, and baking soda until well blended.

  5. Using an electric mixer, add the sour cream mixture to the large bowl of crumbs and beat on medium speed until batter is smooth.

  6. Spread batter in the prepared pan.

  7. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture evenly over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

  2. Transfer pan to a rack and cool.

  3. Sift powdered sugar over the top of the cake.

  4. Cut into squares and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

831Calories
37 gProtein
21 gFat
121 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake and crumb together as it bakes.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity helps the leavening work.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Vegetable oil
Keeps the cake moist and tender by supplying fat that coats the flour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake, adds moisture, and helps browning in the crumb topping.

The step that matters

Beating the sour cream mixture into the crumbs. Beating only until the batter is smooth avoids overdeveloping the flour's gluten, which would make the cake tough and dense rather than tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, cinnamon, cream, egg, vanilla):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, cinnamon, cream, egg, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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