Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Spring Dessert
Dish: Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake
Spring reminds me of Easter, colors and lemons, exactly in that order. I know lemonade is great for summer, but hearty desserts with lemon are excellent for Spring as well, me thinks. Bright, lemony desserts are the perfect way to end a Spring or a Summer meal. So today I have a lemon cake that is just oozing with fresh lemony flavor.
This cake is full of lemon flavor; lemon zest and juice in the cake, then its soaked in lemon syrup and then drizzled with more lemony lemon glaze. I have made this cake twice already and it has received rave reviews both times. I followed the recipe from here. First time I made it, I halved the recipe and made it in a 9" x 5" loaf pan and the second time I made the full recipe in my 12cup bundt pan.
Ingredients:
For the Cake: All purpose flour - 2cups (use 3 cups if not using wholewheat pastry flour) Whole wheat Pastry flour - 1cup Unsalted Butter - 2 sticks, at room temperature
Sugar - 2cups
Extra large Eggs - 4
Meyer Lemon zest - 1/3 cup
Baking Powder - ½tsp
Baking Soda - ½tsp
Meyer Lemon juice - ¼cup
Buttermilk - ¾cup, at room temperature (or use half yogurt and half milk to make ¾ cup)
Vanilla extract - 1tsp
For the Syrup:
Sugar - ½cup
Freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice - ½cup
For the Glaze:
Sifted confectioners sugar - 1cup
Meyer Lemon juice - 3tbsp
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 8½" x 5½" loaf pan or a 9"x13" cake pan or a 12cup bundt cake.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes with hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Next add the lemon zest and mix for 1 minute.
- In a bowl, sift flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
- Alternately add flour and buttermilk mixture to the butter mixture, starting and finishing with flour mixture.
- Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 45minutes to 1 hour or until a cake tester/ toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Make the Syrup: Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook on low flame until sugar dissolves.
- Once the cakes are done, let them cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove onto a wire rack and spoon the syrup on the top, then cool completely.
- Make the glaze: Combine confectioners sugar and lemon juice. Once the cakes are cooled, drizzle the glaze and let it set before cutting.