A piece from the Styled. lemonade stand that I love but have yet to share; lavender lemonade cakes baked in lemons! They were a festive addition to the stand and would make the perfect sweet note for an afternoon brunch or shower.
Download the lemon favor, “open for cake” labels by clicking here.
To make the cakes; cut one lemon in half. Hollow out both sides and fill the lemon with a lavender lemon cake recipe, here is the one I used (minus the icing). Tie the lemon closed with a length of twine. Place the tied, batter filled lemon in tin foil and bake. Set the oven to double the normal cooking time and reduce the temperature of your recipe by 50 degrees for a perfect cook.
Once the cakes are done, place a few pretty sprigs inside the twine, label, and enjoy opening up the scrumptious treats.
Photography done by Carly Taylor for A Subtle Revelry.
This is such a great idea. Love the photos and your blog!
Have a great day!
This is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing. I can’t wait to try it out.
You are crazy. In the most genius way. This is awesome.
So pretty. I never would’ve thought of this. Love it!
Love Love Love this site and magazine and everything! So glad I found it. Thanks for all the great ideas!
this is amazing! I must try it!!!
It is so beautiful and clever! I bet it tasted amazing! Thanks for sharing!!
Where have you been all my life ;) I am in awe of all the inspiration that is on your site. I love the Styled emag as well!
I look forward to all that is to come!
Amanda
frillsandfrolic.blogspot.com
Amanda, Thanks!
These are so clever … and look delish! Definitely trying this :)
:o :o :o
So clever. I have to try this sometime.
It looks absolutely yummy, can’t wait to try making these. Thanks for sharing! Ana
Lemon cake baked INTO a lemon?! How wonderful!
These are so beautiful and I am going to try and make them for Easter. How many lemon cakes did this make? What did you then do with all the lemon insides?
Alexis, I made one tray of them (6 cakes) since it was a photo shoot, so I didn’t need very many. I would fit 6 or 8 per cookie sheet and just bake as many as you need, putting a new tray in after each one is done!
Also, I actually kept the inside of the lemons and froze them for lemonade ice cubes:) You could also juice them and keep the lemon juice for future cooking needs.
What a cute and unique idea.
Oh how unusual! Might have to try this out ..
These look fabulous! How well will these keep? I have about 60 guests coming in two weeks and this looks like the perfect dessert. Can I make them in the morning and have them hold all day? Thank you!
Mary, ours held up throughout the day. I would suggest unwrapping the tin-foil if you are going to keep them as a few of our cakes got a bit soggy from sitting in the tin-foil after baking. I’d love to hear how they hold up for you!
wow what a lovely summer recipe!! Looks easy, fun, and delicious soooo that means I have to make it : D
Wow, that looks so good and unique.
Do you put lemon cake batter on both halves of lemon before you tie it? Or only one? What a great idea?
Except for the lavender (I’m allergic) I love this idea. Gives me something new to try with my lemon tree.
Thankyou
This is a fun idea.
I just read through the instructions and I am unsure whether to put the batter in both halves and close…..or just put batter in one half, then cover with the other empty half?
Thanks.
Jenell and Georgina, You can do either. I filled each side about 1/2 way full of the batter and as it expanded during baking the entire lemon was filled. The only issue is that you will need to close the lids tightly and tie together quickly to not lose your batter:) I’d love to hear how they come out!
I just put a batch of these in the oven. I couldn’t find any lavendar, so I substituted mint in. We will see how it goes! Did you really cook them for roughly 2 hours?
Update: Blech! The subbed in mint was not good. If you can’t find lavander, make something else.
What an awesome idea! I’ve never seen anything like this… it’s sure to keep the guests talking for a while :) Thanks for sharing!!
So I made these in a frenzy of excitment and they turned out TERRIBLE! The cakes inside the lemons had an overpowering taste of concentrated bitterness from the rind of the lemon. I’m not sure what I did wrong…. perhaps I hollowed out the lemons too much? Do you normally leave some lemon flesh and juice inside the lemon before filling it?
Chrissy, I’m glad you tried them, sorry yours didn’t work out. I had another commenter ask above as well about the lemon pith. I didn’t take absolutely all the lemon out, you could try leaving some + a little juice in. Depending on the recipe you use you might try taking out up to 1/2 the lemon juice called for in the recipe to lessen the flavor. Hope that helps! Let me know:)
What a great idea! I love it!
I posted it in my blog with a recipe in German! Thank you so!
I made these to celebrate a birthday during a camping trip this past weekend. I saw them on your blog and thought they would be a great dessert alternative. I prepared the lemons ahead of time and had a friend make a yellow cake batter (we were feeling a little lazy) and threw them in the camp fire in tin foil after dinner. We kind of just estimated the time (about 20 minutes in the coals of the fire), but they turned out to be delicious. A few were a little mushy so we offered to throw them back on the fire, but our friends liked them mushy or not! I really want to try them now with the lavendar cake recipe you have on here. I think they will be a staple for our camping trips this summer (plus I used the lemon juice to make homemade lemonade prior to the camping excursion).
Thank you for sharing this great idea!!!
what a great idea! husband loves lemons- and i love mini-things. perfect combo! thanks again for your ideas
…the sweet side of lemon…
(lovely idea!)
I am trying this idea by baking the batter inside hollowed out lemon. Lemon is like cupcake holder. The whole thing is sitting in a ramekin. It’s taking forever to bake, almost as long as it takes the entire recipe to bake in a bundt pan. Have you ever tried this technique?
Made these last night for a french themed murder mystery party. Everyone loved them but the cake came out of the lemons so I ended up serving them in the tin foil because they were so messy. I baked them for about 40 minutes at 300 degrees. I then left them in while the oven cooled until serving about 4 hours later and the cakes were perfectly done. I found mine was a little bitter in some bites, but I would do them again. I couldn’t find lavender so I just used plain lemon cake mix and it worked very well. I also couldn’t find large lemons so I ended up using the small ones which meant everyone only had a couple bites of cake each but they didn’t mind as they had just eaten the other 2 courses and were quite full.
Loved the idea and everyone was impressed. Thank you!
Lovely idea but terribly unsafe to use aluminium foil with any acidic food. The acid in the lemons will literally dissolve some of the aluminiu, which will end up in the food and then you end up eating a metal whose link to Alzheimers is being studied. Maybe some parchment paper or a tight container would be a safer option.