Lemon cake with Douglas fir tips

Name: Lemon cake with Douglas fir tips
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 1 loaf cake of 25 cm
Ingredients: 200 g soft butter, plus extra for the tin; 200 g sugar; 4 eggs; 250 g self-raising flour; 3 tablespoons milk; 3 tablespoons (± 15 g) finely chopped young Douglas fir tips; 1 unwaxed lemon: grated zest and 2 tablespoons juice; 1 pinch of salt; For the icing: 100 g icing sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Updated on 9 October 2026

Makes: 1 loaf cake of 25 cm
Time: 25 min + 55 min baking
From: Douglas fir

Ingredients

200 g soft butter, plus extra for the tin
200 g sugar
4 eggs
250 g self-raising flour
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons (± 15 g) finely chopped young Douglas fir tips
1 unwaxed lemon: grated zest and 2 tablespoons juice
1 pinch of salt
For the icing: 100 g icing sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

Heat the oven to 170 °C. Butter a 25 cm loaf tin and line it with baking paper.
Pick light green tips from a Douglas fir you can identify with certainty (never yew). Remove the brown scales, chop the tips very finely and rub them in a small bowl with 1 tablespoon of the sugar.
Beat the butter with the rest of the sugar and the tips until creamy and light. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Fold in the flour and salt, then the milk, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Spoon the batter into the tin and bake for 50–55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cover with foil if the top gets too dark.
Leave to stand in the tin for 10 minutes, turn out and cool on a rack. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice and spread the icing over the cold cake.

Storing: 4 days in a closed tin; in slices, 2 months in the freezer.