Changing Chocolate Cake recipe to Lemon Cake

I have a chocolate cake recipe that is so simple that even a kitchen-clueless guy like me can make it perfectly every time.

My question is - can I leave out the cocoa and add something lemony to make it a Lemon Cake?

And if I can, what would I add to the cake to give it a lemon flavour?

Replace the cocoa with extra flour.Depending on your tastes add lemon essence (try a teaspoon full), or lemon juice and the finely grated rind of the lemon.Cut back on fluid if using juice.

My suggestion would be to replace the cocoa with the same quantity of flour e.g. if the recipe has 2 cups flour + ¼ cup cocoa, then use 2¼ cups flour.
As for the lemon flavour.....what liquid does the chocolate cake recipe have - milk?I would add finely grated lemon zest + lemon juice but most likely part of the liquid for the lemon cake would also still need to be milk, or does your chocolate cake recipe have yoghurt or sour cream?

Hope that helps and if not, or in any case, would you care to share your chocolate cake recipe?:-))

Try this - clueless people of both genders can make it ;)

LEMON MADEIRA CAKE
Cream 225g butter (yes, a lot!) with 3/4 cup sugar
Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
Add grated rind of one lemon & 1 Tblsp lemon juice
Add 1 heaped cup self-raising flour
Bake in medium-sized ring tin at 180* for 35 minutes
Remove from oven. While cake is still hot, pour over the juice of one lemon combined with 1/4 cup sugar.

Could be baked in a 20cm square tin.

Have given this some thought. Without seeing the recipe, I am assuming it is one of my favourite style of cakes - basically throw everything into the bowl, melt something if you have to, and beat till smooth. In other words a batter cake. These are not only easy to make but they are much more moist and stay fresher longer than cakes made by the creaming method.

If you leave out the cocoa and substitute cornflour or similar, in such a cake you get a white batter cake.

Now to make that lemony you should add grated lemon rind to the cake and bake. Then you should squeeze out the juice from the lemon/s, add sugar and a little bit of water to it, and make a syrup. Pour that over the cake when it comes out of the oven.

Another thing you could do is boil lemon slices up with the syrup and put those in the bottom on the tin (on to of the paper lining of course) and pour your batter onto them. Then you will have a lemon, upside down cake when you turn it out.

On the other hand, you could look for a lemon syrup cake, which will be just as easy as your no chocolate, chocolate cake, but with precise instructions to follow so you are not guessing.

OR you could try making this cake. It is another batter cake and very easy:

COCO'S LEMON YOGHURT CAKE:
2 cups Sugar
Grated Rind and Juice of 2 Lemons
Pinch Salt
1 cup Oil
1 cup plain unsweetened Yoghurt
2 whole Eggs
2½ cups Self Raising Flour

1. In a food processor process the Sugar, Lemon Rind and Salt for 1 minute
2.Add the oil, Yoghurt, Eggs and Lemon Juice. Process a further minute
3.Sift the Flour and spoon evenly around the food processor blade on top of the creamed mixture. Pulse to combine.
(Do not over-blend as your cake will be tough)
4.Transfer to a well greased and lined 22-23cm round cake tin
5. Bake at 180C for 40 -45mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and stand 10 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack.
6. Ice with Lemon icing (which sadly I don't have a recipe for)

Found a lemon icing:

LEMON ICING or GLAZE
1Tblspn Lemon Juice
1Tblspn Cold Water

Mix and thicken with Icing Sugar (how much will depend on how runny or stiff you want your icing). Mix with wooden spoon till thick enough to spread.

Bedwarmer - you need to get yourself an Edmonds cookbook (every home should have one.)
For your lemon cake, as someone has suggested the madeira cake.
The one egg chocolate sponge recipe in Edmonds is a real quick one - no creaming the butter - just melt butter with golden syrup.
So if you haven't got an Edmonds - time to get one.

Put your chocolate cake recipe up, It would then be easier to help you with something similar.

Some chocolate cake recipes include baking soda - which also helps with the rich colour - if your recipe has that included, the cake will end up kinda creamy-yellowish - add a little extra baking powder and leave out the baking soda.