Lemon Bundt Cake

Lemon Bundt Cake - made August 29, 2021 from Simply Suzanne's at Home

4 lemons

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 large egg yolk, room temperature

18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a large Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and flour lightly.
2. Zest and juice 3 lemons then mince the zest until it is almost a paste, yielding about 2 tablespoons.
3. Mix zest with 3 tablespoons lemon juice in a medium bowl; set aside for 10-15 minutes. Set aside the remaining juice for the glaze.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. To the lemon juice mixture, add vanilla and buttermilk; whisk to combine.
6. In a separate small bowl, whisk eggs and egg yolk.
7. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar at medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, to keep the mixture even-textured.
8. Reduce speed to medium and add half the eggs. Mix for about 15 seconds then add the remaining eggs; mix until combined.
9. Reduce speed to low and add 1/3 of the flour mixture. Mix briefly, add half the buttermilk mixture, and mix for several seconds. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix briefly, add remaining buttermilk, mix briefly then add remaining flour and mix until just combined and no flour streaks remained.
10. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and loosen the sides with a rubber spatula. Turn onto a rimmed baking sheet.

Prepare glaze

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon buttermilk

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk and confectioners' sugar to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Add more lemon juice until desired consistency is reached.
2. Pour half the glaze over the cake and let cool for an hour. Cover the remaining glaze with a damp towel while the cake cools. After an hour, pour the rest of the glaze over the cake and let cool to room temperature.

Back again with another lemon recipe. I'm still using up the bag of lemons I bought at Costco. You know, when I only needed 1 lemon for lemon bars but somehow buying a whole bag of them seemed like a good idea.

I also, for some reason, bought a half gallon of buttermilk because I needed a cup of it for banana bread and a half gallon was all that was available at the grocery store. Yes, I now had two First World problems.

Fortunately lemon pound cake or lemon bundt cake almost inevitably helps solves these problems by using both ingredients. In fairly modest amounts but every recipe helps. And since I now bake regularly for the food distribution to the houseless population in my area, I can now try out more cake recipes such as this one, glaze and all.

This is a good lemon bundt cake, soft crumb, good flavor. Added bonus that it came out of the Bundt pan fairly intact. Alas, not all my Bundt cakes come out so well. Don't skip the glaze if you want the punch of lemon flavor.