A simple lemon cake gets the same love from almost everybody, much like an apple pie. What to bring to a potluck party, using primarily pantry items? This lemon bliss cake from King Arthur Baking gets the vote. You need to have butter, sugar, flour and eggs, the basic building blocks for any cake at a roughly, 1:2:2:1 ratio in weight. In addition, baking powder, the leavening agent, and milk to build out the batter. For the full flavor of lemon bliss, one to two fresh lemons will suffice.
I have a petite version of a heritage bundt pan, which turns out an intricately sculpted cake with sweeping curves. A cake with a dramatic shape like this always gets oohs and aahs from the crowd. However, due to its smaller size, the trick is not to overfill the pan. Or else, it’d be tough to get the cake out of the pan. That leads to the key technical step of how to grease the pan. This is how I do it.
To grease the pan: use a pastry brush to get softened butter into all the nooks and crannies of your bundt pan. Butter adds flavor and allows you to visually ensure that you have coated your pan well. Don’t use melted butter, because it will not coat the pan and blend in with the batter. For extra care, a light dusting of flour can be helpful. Consider using flour sparingly; it can leave a chalk-like film on the cake. Shake the pan to remove any excess flour lining the inside of the pan. With a bundt cake, the fun part is you can always sprinkle confectioners’ sugar to hide any imperfections.
To reduce the batter ingredients for a petite bundt pan: Starting with a reduced number of whole eggs, I use three instead of four eggs of the full recipe. To adjust the rest of the ingredients proportionally, three-quarters (or 75%) of everything else are needed. Consequently, the reduced recipe calls for 170g butter, 298g sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 270g all-purpose flour, 170 ml milk.
Lemon Bliss Cake
Ingredients
- FOR THE CAKE:
- 16 tablespoons (227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, at least 65°F*
- 2 cups (397g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 cups (360g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (227g) milk, whole milk preferred, at room temperature
- zest (grated rind) of 2 lemons or 3/4 teaspoon lemon oil
- 1/4 cup (24g) King Arthur Almond Flour, for dusting baking pan, optional
- FOR THE GLAZE:
- 1/3 cup (74g) freshly squeezed lemon juice, the juice of about 1 1/2 juicy lemons
- 3/4 cup (149g) granulated sugar
- FOR THE ICING: (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups (170g) confectioners' sugar, sifted
- pinch of table salt
- 2 to 3 tablespoons (28g to 43g) freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Beat together the butter, sugar, and salt, first until combined, then until fluffy and lightened in color. For a visual of what this should look like, see our video, how to cream butter and sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once all the eggs have been added, and beat briefly to re-combine any residue.
Measure the flour by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Whisk the baking powder into the flour. Add the flour mixture to the batter in three parts alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. The batter may look slightly curdled when you add the milk. That's OK; it'll smooth out as you add the flour. Mix until everything is well combined; the batter will look a bit rough, but shouldn't have any large lumps. Stir in the zest or lemon oil.
Thoroughly grease a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, leveling it and smoothing the top with a spatula.
Bake the cake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. A pan with a dark interior will bake cake more quickly; start checking at 40 minutes.
While the cake is baking, make the glaze by stirring together the lemon juice and sugar. Microwave or heat over a burner briefly, stirring to dissolve the sugar. You don’t want to cook the lemon juice, so microwave just until very warm, but not uncomfortably hot — less than 1 minute should do it. Set the glaze aside.
Remove the cake from the oven, and carefully run a knife between cake and pan all around the edge. Place the pan upside down on a cooling rack. If the cake drops out of the pan onto the rack, remove the pan. If the cake doesn’t drop onto the rack, let it rest for 5 minutes, then carefully lift the pan off the cake. If the cake still feels like it's sticking, give it another 5 minutes upside down, then very gently shake the pan back and forth to loosen and remove it.
Brush the glaze all over the hot cake, both top and sides. Let it sink in, then brush on more glaze, continuing until all the glaze is used up.
Allow the cake to cool completely before icing and serving.
To ice the cake, mix the sugar and salt, then mix in 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, adding just enough additional juice to create a thick glaze, one that's just barely pourable. Drizzle it artfully over the completely cool cake.
Storage information: Store the cake, well wrapped, at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.
Notes
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/lemon-bliss-cake-recipe
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