I had a serious craving on Friday night for a lemony cake. Not a pound cake, and not a full-on layer cake with frosting. I specifically wanted to make a lemon Bundt cake, and it took me a surprisingly long time to find a straightforward recipe for this. I found all kinds of bundts made with puddings or oozing with fillings, but I just wanted something plain and simple. Eventually I found a perfect recipe in the American’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I do love that book so. My only criticism is that I made the citrus glaze to go over the top of this cake, and it was a little bit of a tart overload to me. But that could be my own weird pregnant palette, or the fact that I slightly overmeasured the amount of lemon juice I used. Not a flaw of the recipe’s, just my own taste. A simple glaze would’ve been more delicious to me. But here are both recipes as I made them.
Lemon Bundt Cake
To coat the pan:
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
For the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking pwder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
3/4 cup buttermilk (I made my own with the lemon juice and milk trick)
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 large egg yolk at room temperature
18 Tbsp (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
For the glaze:
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice or orange juice
Pinch salt