← Replies in Lemon Cake w/ Lemon Curd and Mascarpone Whipped cream 🍋 Recipe

Looking at the amount of lemon juice in the cake batter, you may have a point. Usually, when a cake recipe includes lemon juice, there's baking soda to counteract the acidity and allow it to rise, but there is no baking soda in the batter. I would have to workshop it to say for certain, but at first glance, a little baking soda might help the texture. When you combine acidic lemon juice with baking powder, nothing happens, so the sugar in the batter weighs the cake down and it doesn't rise. When you have baking soda with lemon juice, it creates carbon dioxide bubbles in the batter and the heat of the oven sets the eggs, lightening the batter. I love lemon cake (and I'm a chemist who likes to bake), so it might be a worthwhile experiment. In the meantime, I'd try adding a little baking soda, maybe half a teaspoon, to the batter part to see if it helps. And remember, a fallen cake tastes great in a trifle.