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Lemon Cake Cafe Home Page

Inele and Mike

THE SECRET to Inel’s lemon cakes is using real lemon juice and no artificial ingredients and they shouldn't be eaten right away. Since they keep so well without refrigeration she recommends that they sit for at least a week before being served. While they have been known to last for several months, Inel suggests that they be eaten by about 4 weeks.

While they should never be refrigerated, they do freeze very well.

Of course the most popular lemon cakes is the one in the shape of Texas, however,
the Texas Star Lemon Cake was first conceived as an alternative when the Texas Lemon Cake may not be appropriate. Indeed, a Texas Star Lemon Cake has been sent to two presidents!

These lemon cakes are great for parties and can be served small pieces due the rich, dense nature of the recipe, however, some customers needed larger cakes for holiday buffets and so the Poinsettia Lemon Cake was developed which is 2 1/2 times the size of the Texas Star Cake.

The Pan Lemon Cake served in an aluminum is easier to make and therefore less expensive. It makes a great gift for neighbors, teachers, babysitter etc. or for anyone where you need a less expensive alternative. Though not as fancy, it tastes just as good.

The Decorated Poinsettia Lemon Cakeis iced with a very thin, royal white glaze icing and then painted by hand. Each one is different and considered a real work of art.

The Chocolate Cherry Ring Cake is a chocolate cherry cake made with only the highest quality chocolate. We use dried Michigan tart cherries, plumped up before putting in the cake. It is also a rich, moist cake that will last for weeks. It is baked in the French method which gives it a nice crust with a dense fudge inside with little tart cherries.

The Gingerbread Man makes a great child’s gift. It is16 inches high and is decorated gingerbread style with white icing and candies for buttons then shrink wrapped and placed on a board and then in a box. Each one is different.

Catering: Lemon Cake Cafe can cater dinner parties for as many as 500 people. We catered the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancing Association, an annual dinner for over 500 people. We have also catered many office parties, gallery openings of 250 to 300 people as well as smaller functions. Each situation is different. You can pick your food up here to serve yourself or we can deliver and provide a full range of hosting services. We utilize wait staff from the ballet company so you can be assured of an interesting event. The menu is not set but is tailored to your particular event.

How It All Began

Poinsetta Inel Klein founded Lemon Cake Cafe in the early 1960s while a student at St. Thomas University in Houston, Texas. She got the original recipe from her roommate's mother and, being the consummate, epicurial tinkerer started changing it until it took its current form. In fact, it changed so much that her roommate’s mother doesn’t even recognize it anymore.

In the 1970s, as a fund raising effort, the Houston Ballet conceived the idea of a garage sale. Inel, then a member of the Guild Board, donated some lemon cakes. They sold out within the first 30 minutes. Several years later, she bought her own booth - selling jams, jellies, candies and of course the lemon cakes, which sold by the hundreds. They were in such demand that she began taking orders for 20 and 30 at a time as gifts for friends. Prominent Houston companies would order 100 at a time as presents for clients. Star Cake

Realizing that there was an incredible demand for her lemon cakes, Inel had to begin searching for larger kitchens in which to bake. She baked at several prominent commercial kitchens such as House of Pies and Barbaby’s who, because they were friends of Houston Ballet, had generously donated the time. Eventually, however, she rented a commercial kitchen on Ella Boulevard and continued to bake there until an opportunity came to rent a kitchen in the senior citizens complex on 19th avenue, where she currently remains.

Upon moving to the permanent location, Inel expanded her product line which now includes a Poinsettia Lemon Cake, a Decorated Poinsettia Lemon Cake and an aluminum Pan Lemon Cake which was produced as a less expensive option for customers who didn't want anything fancy.

Inel has heard many lemon cake stories including one which resulted in a family feud. Apparently, someone didn't want to share her lemon cake with the rest of the family.

One year, she sold 50 lemon cakes to her husbands company to be sent to New Orleans. In spite of her reluctance to send cakes to New Orleans due to the city’s "religious" nature about food, they were well received. In fact, the next year one of the ladies ordered 12 lemon cakes. When Inel suggested that she could ship them to her friends as a service, she replied..."No! Those cakes are all for me!" Generally however, most people buy them to give to friends during the holidays.