At my house, we don’t have good dessert compatibility. My preferences lean toward simple cakes and fruit desserts, likes crisps and tarts. My husband likes chocolate, period (well, for the most part). A lemon loaf cake is right up my alley, even though I didn’t really have anyone at home to share it with.

I could not believe how easy it was to put together this cake. No mixer required. The fanciest pieces of equipment required were a sifter and a zester, hardly exotic. Thinking I would freeze some of the cake (because I didn’t want to eat the whole cake on my own), I made three mini loaves instead of one big one. They only needed to bake for 40 minutes.

I had Meyer lemons on hand, so I used those. I always enjoy their floral undertones. Meyer lemons are a cross between lemons and Mandarin oranges, so it’s softer than the usual tart lemon.

The little cakes baked with high crowns. I’m not sure that is what should have happened, but the end result was delicious. The cake had a light crumb, and it was moist, not at all dry.

I often see recipes for cakes doused with simple syrup. This cake sounded like the right palette for that sort of embellishment. I had three little cakes to play with. I left one plain. I made a lemon syrup with the juice of my zested lemons for another cake. I made a rosemary syrup for the last one.

I liked the syrup-doused cakes even more than the plain one. I poked holes in the cake with a toothpick before liberally brushing the syrup over the cake. Unfortunately, the syrup didn’t penetrate deep into the cake. I’m wondering whether I should have used a wider, longer skewer instead a little-bitty toothpick.

Finally, I have to say that I love any excuse to use my cake dome, and these cakes cry out to spend time on the counter under glass, so that’s where they are for now.

This post is part of Tuesdays with Dorie, a new cook-along group I joined where we are working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Julia.

You can find the recipe on the sites of this week’s hosts Truc of Treats and Michelle at The Beauty of Life . I can’t wait to see how other bloggers made out with their Lemon Loaf Cakes. You can see for yourself, by following the links here.