Imagine a basic butter cake flavoured with lemon zest and topped with crunchy almonds. Soft, moist and made without baking powder or soda, so that eggs are the only leavening agent. This is a Swedish Visiting Cake! Apparently, it got its name from the fact that it’s so quick to make, that you can start it when you see sudden visitors walking towards your home, and have it ready by the time they knock 🙂
This was a post from five years ago, and I decided to update it, like many other posts lately. This chocolate stout cake got a recent upgrade too! With fresh photos and a slightly modified recipe, I’m actually really liking going back into the archives and pulling all these treasures out.
I first heard of a Swedish Visiting Cake from my sister-in-law. The recipe, from Dorie Greenspan, now has multiple adaptations all over the web. I felt like it could do with a little less sugar, but that’s all I did differently this time. It’s unique in the sense that it relies entirely on eggs to help it rise so it’s flatter than a ‘regular’ cake, but still soft and fluffy. Quite magical!
It’s the perfect no-fuss tea cake with its classic flavours and buttery texture. I hope you’ll try this today!
Please read the recipe notes before beginning.
Swedish Visiting Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4th cup caster sugar (see notes)
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt if using unsalted butter
- 115 gms butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 3 tbsps sliced almonds
Instructions
- Grease a shallow 8 inch cake pan or pie dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 175 C.
- Add the sugar and lemon zest to a mixing bowl. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips till the sugar feels moist.
- Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla, salt (if using) and whisk again.
- Stir in the flour and finally add the melted butter, stirring till the batter is smooth and even. A silicone spatula is useful here. It will seem like the butter is too much but it gets absorbed into the batter quickly.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothening it if necessary with the back of a spoon or spatula. Sprinkle the top with the almonds.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the top is golden-brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate the pan halfway through the baking time to let the cake brown evenly. Let the cake cool for about 20 minutes before slicing, it tastes great slightly warm! Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight tin at room temperature for 3 to 4 days, and in the fridge for a week. Happy baking!
Notes
Shop this recipe!
Check out a full list of my baking essentials here!
This post contains affiliate links.
Pingback: Swedish Chocolate Cake
Pingback: Gooey Lemon Blondies
By regular flour you mean the normal wheat flour or maida?
Maida or all-purpose flour
Hi!,
Tried this cake and it was stunning. This cake reiterates that best things in life are often the simplest!
Thank you
Thanks for trying it out! I agree, simple is the best 🙂
Pingback: Plum Cake | The Desserted Girl
Sounds absolutely delicious. My family is a sucker for butter cake, I am sure they will love this.
Thanks Aruna! I’m sure they will 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
Simple and beautiful cake!! 🙂
Absolutely! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Hi! Would love to know where you buy barley flour in Bombay. Please let me know if you know of a place 🙂 Can’t wait to try this cake!
Hi Karishma! I buy it at Nature’s Basket outlets normally 🙂 It produces super soft cakes, do let me know how it works with this recipe!