Easy Leftover Lemon Cake Croutons with Lemon Sugar

Why You Will Make These Again and Again

• Easy to make. Though it takes some time to slowly toast the cake cubes, the recipe is a breeze.

• Tasty snack. Munch on these when you are cooking dinner. Take them as your hike snack. Feed them to hungry kids after school. These tasty bite-sized munchies will be a hit whenever you serve them.

• A delicious way to use up any leftover lemon cake. You never have to throw out cake remains again when you make recycled cake recipes. Whether your lemon cake is stale or you have cake scraps in the freezer, you can make cake croutons with them.

Ingredients

• Leftover lemon cake. Lemon pound cake is the best, but you can use any lemon cake. However, the cake shouldn’t have frosting on it.
  
  If there is frosting, scrape it off. And if you want to be doubly safe, thinly slice the edge off of the cake where the frosting was spread.

• Liquid fat. Melted butter or coconut oil are the best fats to use. Salted butter is fine. You can also use olive oil.

• Lemon sugar. Lemon sugar is granulated sugar blended with lemon zest. It is quick and easy to make and use right away. But you can also let the sugar and zest infuse together in a closed container for a few days.

Substitutions

Try leftover white, vanilla, or angel food cake in this recipe. Make croutons with any of these cakes sprinkled with lemon sugar. The end product will not taste as lemony, but you will still get a hint of lemon.

Variations

• No sweetening. Let the leftover lemon cubes be subtle lemon croutons with no added sugar.

• Sweeten with sugar only. If you don’t have a lemon on hand, sweeten it with granulated sugar. The croutons will be sweeter than they would be using lemon sugar.

Directions

Prepare the Cake

• Scrape any frosting off the cake.

• Optional: If you don’t like the browned cake edges, cut them off for a cleaner look.

• Slice the cake into 1-inch thick pieces.

• Cut each cake piece into 1-inch cubes.

• Lay the lemon cake cubes on a baking sheet in a single layer. Leave them on the counter for 24 to 48 hours to dry out. You can lightly drape a paper towel over them if you are concerned about dust or contamination while they dry.

Prepare the Lemon Sugar

• Wash and dry a fresh lemon.

• With a microplane grater, zest the lemon. Only get the yellow part of the peel. The white pith is mostly flavorless (though some people find it bitter). The bottom line is that the pith won’t add to the flavor, so try to avoid it.

• Measure the granulated sugar into a food processor. Scrape the lemon zest (oil, juice, and all) in with the sugar.

• Process the sugar and lemon zest together until the zest is as fine as possible.

• Scrape the lemon sugar out of the container. You can use it immediately or store it in an airtight container while the lemon cake cubes dry out.

Make the Lemon Cake Croutons

• Preheat the oven to 250°F (120°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• Transfer the dried lemon cake cubes into a large mixing bowl.

• Melt the butter or coconut oil. Heat in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl for about 20 seconds until completely melted.

• Pour the melted butter into the cake cubes. Stir to combine.

• Use a fork to break up any clumps in the lemon sugar. Toss the sugar into the dried cubes and stir until they are evenly coated.

• Lay the lemon cake cubes in a single layer on the lined baking sheet.

• Toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Stir and toast for another 10 minutes. Repeat another couple of times. The total toasting time should be about 30 to 40 minutes.
  
  Use your sense of sight and smell to know when they are done. They should be starting to visibly brown and get firm. If they haven’t browned yet, keep toasting.

• Remove them from the oven and turn the oven off.

• Cool completely. The croutons will be crunchy once they have cooled.

• Snack on them right away, toss them with a salad, or garnish a scoop of ice cream.

Tasty Tips

• If you make the lemon sugar on the day you cube the cake, it may clump over the time the cake is drying out. This is no problem. Stir it to break up the clumps.
  
  Sometimes a fork makes the job easier. You can also make the lemon sugar when you are ready to toast the croutons. The oil in the lemon zest will smell amazing when you process it with sugar.

• Sometimes it is hard to tell when the croutons are ready and will be crunchy. The easiest thing to do is watch for the cake cubes to begin to toast.
  
  After they start to brown, they will be perfect. However, they have to cool before they are crunchy. Right out of the oven, they won’t be.

• Toasting in a low-heat oven may take a long time. However, the low toast is the best way to get that light crunch you expect from a crouton.

How to Store

If you are going to munch on the croutons as a snack, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature.

If you are not going to eat them right away, store them in the freezer in a freezer-safe container or a zip-top freezer bag. The freezer is the best way to preserve the croutons so they are ready to eat any time.

How Long do Lemon Cake Croutons Last?

If they are correctly stored, lemon cake croutons will last at room temperature for about a week. After seven days, they start to taste stale.

Be sure to keep them in an airtight container. Otherwise, they may start to soften. And softened croutons aren’t great.

If you freeze the croutons, they will last in the freezer for 6 months or even longer. The best thing about freezing croutons is that there is no thawing necessary. They are always ready to eat, though they might feel a little cool.

They will be closer to room temperature if you want to wait 3 to 5 minutes.

FAQs

How to Use Lemon Cake Croutons

• Eat as a snack.

• Top a bowl of vanilla, lemon, or raspberry ice cream.

• Stir in ambrosia salad.

• Mix in a green salad.

Hungry for More Leftover Cake Recipes?

• Leftover birthday cake Rice Krispies treats with marshmallows, white chocolate, and jimmies

• Leftover cake bread pudding with pecans and brown butter caramel sauce

• Easy dessert skewers with fruit and cake cubes

Got Cake Questions?

Learn the answers to all things cake.

• Find out how long it takes all types of cake to cool.

• Learn how long cake lasts, plus the best storage tips.

• Discover how long cake batter lasts and how long cake mix is good for.