Old Fashioned Lemon Buttermilk Cake (Plus Major Giveaway)

24 CommentsSunday • July 11, 2010 • by Ari

My husband & his buddies take paintball VERY seriously.

Lemon cake is one of those decadent treats that I try not to make too often, mostly because I can’t stop eating it. But my husband is participating in a two-day paintball game this weekend and I thought to myself: this would be the perfect time to make that cake I can’t resist. No, not because he’d be out of the house I’d have the cake all to myself (though that thought did cross my mind). My thinking went more along the lines of slicing the cake into several pieces, putting one aside for myself, then sending the rest off with my husband before I changed my mind and ate two three pieces. Paintball guys don’t mind it when you send baked goods to them and they don’t care how much butter is in a cake. They’re too busy running around the woods and torching calories at an inhuman rate. I’ve considered playing paintball for these calorie-burning benefits alone… but then there’s that whole dodging paintballs thing and well, I’d rather limit myself to that one piece of cake.

There is a lot of butter in this cake. Like, a lot. But this is also the best lemon cake I’ve tasted and it will fill your home with an aroma so alluring you’ll be tempted to sit next to the oven while it bakes. Or do a happy dance, clapping your hands in anticipation of glazing this bad boy with lemon glaze. That’s right, more lemon flavor. Love it.

I dare you to resist a slice of this moist, lemony cake in all its glazed splendor! I'm told an army Master Sargent ate 3 pieces of this cake at the game yesterday. Told you, no one can resist.

The cake recipe comes unaltered from In The Sweet Kitchen but the glaze is my “recipe” if you can call a simple combination of confectioners sugar and fresh lemon juice such a thing. The glaze originally paired with this cake was just… off to me. It used butter, sugar and lemon juice in a way that, while insanely delicious, also had a curdled appearance that didn’t live up to my usual standards in the baked goods department. Still, In the Sweet Kitchen is a great book. The flavor pairing and ingredient substitution charts are worth their weight in gold if you’re interested in writing your own recipes. In fact, these charts were instrumental when writing my recipe for Whole Wheat Banana Maple Muffins.

Want one?

By this point you’re probably wondering where the “major giveaway” is right? Enough with the cake already, we get it, it’s awesome. Well I won’t keep you waiting any longer, though the giveaway is actually on my NEW blog (!!) called The Vegetarian Family Table. Hop on over to the site and check out the left-hand sidebar on the homepage for details. I’m giving away a Le Creuset French Oven, an ice cream maker and two copies of The Berry Bible. Have fun with the giveaway, good luck and please feel free to let me know what you think about the new blog, which will feature all my non-baking recipes from now on. I’ll still continue to post baked goods here on Baking and Books and will likely begin posting more book reviews too.

Old Fashioned Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Reprinted with permission from In The Sweet Kitchen, by Regan Daley

Ingredients: Makes 1 cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Grated zest of 2 large lemons
• Juice of 1 large lemon (about 2 1/2 tablespoons)

For the Glaze:

• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• Juice of 1 large lemon (about 2 1/2 tablespoons)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Great a 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside. Using a wooden spoon, or the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Don’t overmix; just fold gently until the batter looks well blended. Fold in the lemon zest and juice. (The batter may appear curdled with the addition of the lemon juice – don’t worry!)

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, and the cake has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.

For the glaze: in a medium bowl add the lemon juice to the 2 cups of confectioners sugar, mixing vigorously to get rid of any lumps of sugar. If the glaze isn’t thick enough to coat the cake, add more sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing well between additions. The glaze should be thick but pourable.

Invert cake onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Spoon the glaze over hot cake and allow to cool completely before cutting. Best the day it is made, it will keep fairly well, in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to 3 days.