meyer lemon coffee cake

I’ve always had a thing for citrus. According to my Mom, my first sentence was, “More orange juice please.” It really isn’t a sentence (where’s the verb?), but don’t tell her that. I still love my 100% juice, lots of pulp orange juice. It’s a staple item that I buy every week. In fact, as a poor college student, one of my few luxuries was the $3 crate of Tropicana each week.

Aside from my love affair with orange juice, I also enjoy other citrus fruits. Grapefruit is my favorite citrus fruit to eat. And yes, I do own a grapefruit knife and I do squeeze every last drop of the fruit into my mouth. Lemons and limes are essential kitchen staples for me, too. You never know when you’re going to need one.

Naturally, I was pretty excited about these Meyer lemons. I spent a while scouring Pinterest and blogs for the perfect recipe before finding a Martha Stewart recipe for Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake. As I was doing a little research on Meyer lemons, I discovered that Martha Stewart is the “godmother of this Cinderalla story” about the Meyer lemon. Don’t believe me? I found the following on NPR:

“…the popularity of Meyer lemons has soared since food and lifestyle maven Stewart began featuring them in recipes, such as her lemon-pine nut tart, whole-wheat spaghetti with arugula and pistachios, and a take on classic coffee cake with thinly sliced Meyer lemons in the batter.”

Did you catch that part at the end? Thinly sliced Meyer lemons in the coffee cake batter? That’s our recipe today. It’s famous and partially featured on NPR.

 Here are a few other Meyer lemon facts for you:

• Meyer lemons were decorative house plants in China (they are pretty, right?)
• Meyer lemons are a cross between lemons and mandarins
• The thin rind on Meyer lemons is edible and the juice lacks the tartness of a regular lemon
• The Meyer lemon is named after Frank N.Meyer, an agricultural explorer (sounds like a cool job) who traveled to Asia several times in the early 1900′s
• Meyer lemon season goes from November to March, so hurry up and find them now before they’re gone. They’re difficult to find since traditional grocers don’t often carry them. The soft rind makes them difficult and expensive to ship.

Now that you know all you need to know about Meyer lemon history, get out your KitchenAid Mixer and make this delicious coffee cake. Martha got it right with this one. It has a perfect combination of tartness and sweetness.

And while you’re making it, snack on a few a slices of Meyer lemons (rind and all). They’re absolutely delicious!

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