Old man winter showed up this weekend in the form of 10″ of snow accompanied by intensely cold temps. Gray skies plus snow make for a bleak weekend. I made it all better by baking a Lemon Bliss Cake , bringing some sunshine to an otherwise sunless couple of days. Lemon anything is my favorite. It ranks higher than chocolate, although I do love some chocolate at times. If lemon is offered in the form of pie, pudding, cake, bars, etc. I typically pick lemon! This cake made me so blissful – I suppose that’s why it got the name – Lemon Bliss Cake.
It was a no-brainer that my man, Dan and I would spend the weekend nestled in front of a fire. I caught up on some reading, we begin summer vacation planning, watched tons of football, engaged in gobs of one on one chitchat. It was a swell way to spend a snowy Saturday and Sunday. Sweats, no makeup, hair tied back, socks on my tootsies sans any outside interruptions. My man did go out and shoot a few “snow day” photos around the house. For some reason he shoveled a path to the cars (in case we changed our minds and wanted to leave). We didn’t – change our minds!
I found this recipe a few weeks ago. I saved it for a day just like this one. It is moist and sweet, with a delightful citrus tang! It’s perfection in a bundt pan! The recipe says the icing is optional – the icing is NOT optional in my kitchen!
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 16 tablespoons (1 cup) unsalted butter*, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup milk, whole milk preferred
- finely grated rind of 2 medium lemons OR 3/4 teaspoon lemon oil
- *If you use salted butter, reduce the salt in the recipe to 3/4 teaspoon.
- Glaze:
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; the juice of about 1 1/2 juicy lemons
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- Icing:
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
- pinch of salt
- 2 to 3 tablespoons 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.
- 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 grated lemon rind or lemon oil. (I used both)
- 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.
- Store the cake, well wrapped, at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.
