cakes

Spiced Apple Walnut Bundt Cake

September 21, 2018 Leave a Comment

If we add fruit to our cakes, that makes them healthy, right? Right?? Let’s all just lie to ourselves this once. This spiced apple walnut bundt cake is worth lying to yourself about. What I love most about this cake is that it’s not too sweet. It’s actually perfect on the sugar-level, so much so that the frosting is totally optional. You could leave it out completely and still enjoy this cake. Maybe you just want a light dusting of powdered sugar. Or, you could go all out and douse this baby in some rich homemade salted caramel. I was originally gonna go that route, but I decided something a little creamy would satisfy my craving.

I love just about any desert that combines warm fall spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, etc. with seasonal fruit, and toasty nuts. It hits every single note that I’m searching for and more. This apple walnut cake is ridiculously easy to make, and comes together very quickly. Just make sure you take your eggs out the fridge a good half-hour before you even start. But hey, sometimes we forget to do these things (I totally did), so check the recipe notes for a quick way to bring your eggs down a notch on the chill-scale.

My preference is to toast my nuts (heh) over the stove. It’s faster, but it’s also a little more dangerous because they get toasted FAST. You cannot walk away from this. If you’re too nervous to do this, simply pop them in the oven.

Feel free to use a variety of apples!

This cake is delicious AF! I made it on a Sunday, and it was gone by Tuesday. We’re a bunch of fatties, I swear.

If you want, you could shred the apples on a box grater. I actually may try that next time. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the apple chunks, but because I like to try different things to see which I like better, they’re getting grated next time. Pears almost made it into this cake, but I didn’t feel like working with them because they tend to release a lot of liquid, and I didn’t want a soupy cake. Take note of that in case you get the idea of adding pears or using all pears. Hell, it might work, give it a try and let me know.

Equipment Needed

Spiced Apple Walnut Bundt Cake

Author: Chef Resha
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
Yield: 12-14 servings

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Description

Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

3 large eggs, room temperature (SEE NOTES)
1 cup shelled walnuts, toasted and chopped
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
4 large tart apples (4 cups), diced
1 1/4 cups vegetable or canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract’

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces (half a package) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, plus more if desired
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon maple extract
*heavy cream or half and half to loosen to desired consistency (SEE NOTES)
pinch of sea salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Prepare a 12-cup capacity bundt pan with baking spray and set aside.
Either toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over medium-high heat, constantly swirling to prevent burns. You’ll know they’re ready when they become fragrant, about 3 minutes. Alternatively, spread the walnuts evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes. Let the nuts cool completely and chop medium coarse.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger.
Peel, core, and cut the apples into 1/8 to 1/4 inch dice.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a flat beater, add the eggs, oil, white and brown sugars, and the vanilla. Blend on medium speed for about a minute, or until fully combined.
Add the spiced flour mixture and beat on low speed for 20 seconds, just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and fold any leftover pockets of flour into the batter.
Detach the bowl from the stand and with a large spoon/spatula, stir in the apples and walnuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester, wooden skewer, or long toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center.
Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. If using a straight sided pan, run a metal spatula between the sides of the pan and the cake. Invert the cake onto a wire rack that has been lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray and cool completely for about 1 1/2 hours.

For the maple cream cheese frosting

Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth.
Add powdered sugar, syrup, vanilla and maple extract; beat until smooth.
Pour in half and half, or heavy cream to loosen to desired consistency (if you want). Add a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors. Pour or spread the frosting onto the completely cooled cake. You may have some frosting leftover, depending on how much coverage you want. If so, freeze the leftovers for another cake.
Enjoy! This cake stays moist 5 days at room temperature, up to 10 days refrigerated. Because it is made with oil, it can be enjoyed at room temperature or cold.

Notes

If you forget to bring your eggs to room temperature prior to preparation, simply place them in a bowl of warm (not hot!) water for about 5 to 10 minutes to take the chill off.

Use heavy cream or half and half to loosen your frosting if it’s not as fluid as you’d like. As long as it tastes good, it really doesn’t matter how it looks.

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

September 19, 2016 3 Comments

“I hate carrot cake” is often what I’m told by people who have no idea what good life is all about. A bunch of weirdos, honestly. People you just cannot trust. I mean, who in their right mind hates carrot cake? What has carrot cake ever done to you? It’s sweet, flavorful, moist, delicious, and one of the easiest cakes to make known to man. How can you not love cream cheese frosting? Butter, cream cheese, sugar, flavorings…sounds like bliss to me, but then again, most people in this world are weirdos. There is no wrong way to make carrot cake, only a favorite way. Carrot cake is so versatile and there are countless things you can do with it. Add a little ginger, or some pumpkin, or even chocolate. Add some juicy golden raisins, or another dried fruit — such as apricot, the possibilities are endless. Carrot gets shredded down so that it bakes evenly in the oven, and you’re not chewing on hard raw pieces. Carrots also have tons of natural sugar, so they only help the cake taste better. Cinnamon, a little nutmeg, maybe some ground ginger, and man oh man, you’ve got a winner.

I spent two days making a carrot cake recently, and I’m pretty damn proud of it. Cake decorating isn’t my specialty, but I do okay for an amateur. I topped this delicious cake with homemade sugar art, which I may have to show you how to do at a later time thru video — it’s way too hard to make sugar art AND hold a camera at the same time. However, here’s a link that’ll show you how to do it at home.

I wanted contrast to my cake because I wanted to top it with a thin drizzle of white chocolate ganache. So, I added some food coloring to give a 2-dimensional feel to it of bright oranges and yellow hues. Totally a personal choice, you do not have to use food coloring at all for your cake. I don’t typically add food coloring to my carrot cakes, but like I said, this time I wanted to.

For this recipe, focus on the cake and don’t get caught up in trying to make it look like mine. This recipe is just enough for three 8-inch layers, but two 9-inch pans will work fine. If you only have two 9-inch pans and still have leftover batter, make cupcakes or something. This recipe is a starting off point, and as far as additions go, you can deviate from it as much as you’d like. If you don’t like pecans, try walnuts — or any nut you do like. Hell, do a combination of nuts. If you like dried fruit, throw that in there. Go crazy with it. Just keep an eye on it as it bakes, because baking times WILL vary. Depending on if you’re using a dark-coated cake pan (like I did), or a light one. It’ll also vary depending on the cake pan size, your oven temperature, etc. At the very least, start checking for doneness around the 30-minute mark. The toothpick you insert should come out clean with just a few crumbs sticking to it at the most. If you don’t like the flavor of maple, leave it out! Seriously, do whatever you want.

here are all the carrots I plan on using

peel them and remove the ugly outer layers.

chop off the ends.

and the tops.

ahh, there we are.

grab a cheese grater, and shred the carrots on the largest holes.

like so.

well…I used all but one of my carrots. see why kitchen scales are our friend?

put some nuts on a baking sheet and roast them for about 8-10 minutes until fragrant.

meanwhile, prep your cake pans. I didn’t have round parchment sheets, so I’m going to improvise.

…by tracing the size I need…

like this…

and cutting them out!

perfect fit.

crack the eggs in your stand mixer, or bowl with your hand-mixer nearby.

add the sugar.

beat it like it stole something, until its light and pale yellow.

like this.

now, lets make the dry ingredient situation.

baking powder is key.

so add it.

baking soda is also key..

so add that, too.

add some salt, MAJOR key! what good is all of this stuff if you can’t taste it?

add some warmth via cinnamon.

grab some fresh nutmeg.

grate that baby.

you only need a little of it though. so put the rest in an airtight container and use it for something later.

I forgot to take a picture, but add some ground ginger! then mix everything up.

add the buttermilk to the oil.

add the maple extract.

and the vanilla extract.

mix it all up.

pour the buttermilk mixture into the egg/sugar mixture.

beat it up until it’s combined.

like so.

see?

add the dry ingredients! be careful not to spill any.

beat it up.

add the carrots.

mix her up.

oh, chop your nuts!

grab some golden raisins — OR NOT lol. add whatever you want.

add the nuts.

mix everything

prep your cake pans. i used a little non-stick cooking spray for the very bottom.

spread it around w/ your fingers or a silicone brush.

place the parchment on top of the non-stick spray.

THEN butter the parchment, just a little, like a teaspoon or so. get the sides of the cake pan too.

like this!

add some flour and shake it around until the entire inside of the cake pan is coated.

like this.

then knock all the flour out into the next pan. make sure you get as much excess flour out as you can.

should look like this.

begin pouring the cake batter into each pan as evenly as possible.

you can be anal like me (heh) and measure each layer to make sure they’re all the same.

place all the pans on a single oven rack, in the middle of your oven, and bake. feel free to rotate the pans half-way thru the baking process, just in case your oven has hot spots.

you’ll know when it’s ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

ahhh so cute.

beautifully baked, pulls away from the sides of the pan.

after about 30 minutes, I took the cakes out and let them cool on a rack.

but I’m impatient, so I put them in the fridge to hurry up and cool.

make your maple frosting.

beat the butter and cream cheese alone first, until its combined and smooth.

like so.

then add the powdered sugar.

GENTLY combine this, be gentle…because this will fly everywhere.

add the maple syrup.

add the vanilla.

add the maple extract.

add a little salt to taste. this is fleur de sel.

whip it up until it’s smooth and fluffy.

like this.

put some of the frosting into a piping bag, just enough to go between each layer.

you’ll have leftover frosting, you’re supposed to. this cake isn’t nearly complete. i’m adding some food coloring to mine because I’m extra. you do not have to do this part.

i’m leveling my cakes just a little, using a cake leveler. again, you don’t have to do this part.

its taking off just the slight dome on each layer.

nice and leveled.

take the frosting from the piping bag and draw an even layer. or just spread it, it’s not a big deal.

like so.

see?

i’m giving my cake a very thin crumb coat. this will lock in any loose crumbs so that they don’t appear in the final frosting.

like this.

cool. now put this in the fridge to set up for about 20 minutes.

then continue frosting as normal.

this is what i’m doing because again, i’m being extra.

but i loved the outcome.

almost.

ahh there we go. now put this in the fridge to set up. go make your ganache IF you’re using it.

pour it on top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.

like so. then put this in the fridge to set up for another 10-15 minutes.

top with sugar art or whatever you choose. i used sugar art and crushed pistachios for contrast. the green was lovely against the fall colors.

she’s kinda cute.

these are just sugar art spirals and a sugar art basket, kinda poorly done lol.

beautiful.

eat it!

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Resha from CarnalDish
Prep Time: 40 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
Yield: 12 servings

Print Recipe

Description

slightly adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients

For the cake

1 cup pecans, or nut of choice
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 pound carrots, peeled and coarsely shredded

For the frosting

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons maple extract
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
pinch of salt (I used fleur de sel)

For the white chocolate ganache

12 ounces white chocolate, chopped fine (don’t use chips)
4 ounces heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325°. Butter three 8-inch cake pans; line the bottoms with parchment. Butter the paper and flour the pans, knocking out as much excess flour as possible.
Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes, until fragrant. Cool and finely chop.
In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the oil, buttermilk, maple extract, and vanilla. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer or stand-mixer, beat the eggs and sugar at high speed until pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in the liquid ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Beat in the dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in the carrots and pecans. Divide the batter between the pans and bake the cakes for 30 to 40 minutes, or until springy and golden. Let the cakes cool on a rack for 30 minutes, then unmold the cakes and let cool completely. You can pop them in the fridge or freezer if you’re in a hurry.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese at high speed until light, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, maple extract, maple syrup, then the confectioners’ sugar; beat at low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. For even coverage, put about 3 cups of the frosting into a large piping bag. Otherwise, just plop the frosting onto the cake as you wish. You should have plenty of frosting leftover to frost the outside and top of the cake.
Peel off the parchment paper and invert one cake layer onto a plate or cake board. Spread with a slightly rounded cup of the frosting, or use the piping bag to create an even layer by starting in the center of the cake and swirling around until you reach the edge of the cake. Top with the second cake layer, right side up. You can spread a thin layer of frosting on the outside of the cake to make a “crumb coat”. Chill the cake until the frosting sets up, about 20 minutes. Then spread the top and sides with the remaining frosting and refrigerate the cake until chilled, about 1 hour.
To make the ganache, heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan or microwave until really hot. Pour the hot cream over the finely chopped white chocolate. After about 2 minutes, gently stir until combined and smooth. Immediately pour the ganache on the center of the cake and let it drip down the sides. You may not use all of the ganache, it’s up to you. Refrigerate the cake so that everything sets up, about 30 minutes.
Slice and serve.

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https://carnaldish.com

Homemade Monkey Bread with a Buttery Vanilla Glaze

January 15, 2012 9 Comments

Eek!

I had a sweet tooth. I had to listen to my tooth. I try to be obedient from time to time lol 😉

I decided to make monkey bread! What is monkey bread? It’s one of those throwback breakfast/dessert/sugarshock treats that might take you back to your childhood. Basically you take balls of yeast dough, dunk them in butter, then dunk them in a brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, bake, and devour. If you like the flavors of cinnamon rolls, you’ll love this one — most of the ingredients are the same.

Unfortunately, some folks made this with refrigerated biscuit dough…murrr 😐 I knew I didn’t wanna put myself thru that crap because it just isn’t good. It’s mushy, it’s too tender (yes, that can be a bad thing), and it doesn’t pull apart nicely. This recipe fixes all that. I decided to give my new SAF Gold Instant Yeast a go, and it turns out to be a fabulous yeast. I’m glad I dropped the insanely cheap $7 for a whole pound of it. It’s everything. You can use any brand of instant yeast, so don’t feel obligated to buy the SAF stuff — although it’s amazeballs.

This yeast dough holds up very nicely and pulls apart with ease. It’s kinda chewy, and it’s super buttery and full of wonderful flavor. I made 2 extremely minor “mistakes” along the way. Although my monkey bread turned out awesome, I could have given it an additional 20 to 25 minutes to proof after being rolled in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. I got impatient after 45 minutes, I can’t even lie lol. I wanted this thing in the oven and basically said “Eff it, I’m goin to devour it regardless”. It was perfect, but the balls of dough at the very bottom of the pan (that show up on top when you invert it) could have used an extra 20 minutes to rise before baking…no biggie. The second thing was, I waited 6 minutes to invert it instead of 5…please make sure you invert it after 5 minutes exactly. This is key…if you wait any longer, the sugars will start to harden and turn to candy and you risk the cake falling apart by sticking to random areas of the bundt pan for dear life. Mine came out 98% in tact. There were 2 pieces that almost stuck to the bundt pan, but they fell out just 2 seconds later and I was able to easily put it back together. Hell, I may even invert it after 4 minutes next time just because my bundt pan is super non-stick from jump.

Anyway, this monkey bread is the truth. It’s soooooo good, go make it now!

I started off with KAF’s SAF Gold Instant Yeast

oooh, look at all of that yeast…we need just 2¼ teaspoon’s of it

mix your flour and salt

meanwhile, heat both the water and milk to 110 degrees

add the melted butter, granulated sugar, and yeast to the barely warm milk and water mixture

whisk together until the sugar is dissolved

add the milk/yeast mixture to the flour/salt mixture and let the machine knead the dough for about 5 to 7 minutes or until the dough is shiny and smooth (it took my dough about 5 minutes)

quickly knead the dough into a ball and place inside of a greased bowl. wrap tightly with plastic wrap and allow the dough to proof inside of a warm turned off oven for one hour or until doubled in size. (It took my dough exactly 1 hour to double in size)

grease your bundt pan with 2 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter — and make sure you get into every nook and cranny!

set up your butter/sugar station

the dough has doubled in size and is even touching the plastic wrap

gently peel the plastic wrap back of it’s sticking to the bottom of it…

you can tell it’s doubled when you gently imprint the dough with two fingers and it stays in tact

shape the dough into a 7 or 8 inch square…mine kinda looks like a rounded square lol

with either a knife or bench scraper, divide the dough into 4 sections…

then divide each section into another 4 sections

then divide that hunk of dough into another 4 sections…

like so…

you should have about 64 balls of dough and they should all be about the same size..cover the balls of dough with a damp paper towel because they will start to dry out very quickly otherwise

butter each ball of dough

then dunk it in the sugar/cinnamon mixture

then place each sugared ball of dough into the buttered bundt pan until…

you get something like this

cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof in a warm turned off oven, or warm spot of your kitchen for about an hour and 10 to 20 minutes.

bake it on 350

let it cool in the pan for about 4 to 5 minutes (no longer than 5!!), then invert it onto a serving platter or cake stand

looks pretty good, but it needs a glaze…but before we glaze it, it has to cook for a good 10 to 15 minutes (I know, I know, you wanna eat it right now but trust me, let it rest a bit…it becomes easier to pull apart after 10 to 15 minutes of cooling

after 10 to 15 minutes, drizzle your glaze all over it and enjoy your monkey bread 🙂

that texture is so perfect! soft, pillowy, chewy…delicious

I need you to understand how delicious this stuff is. It’s SO good! So many different textures and layers, I just love it. I definitely plan on making this again and adding some pecans to it for even more flavor. You can really dress this baby up and make it your own. This recipe comes together in about 3 hours total, including prep…so it’s definitely something great to do on the weekends or on a rainy day off. The outcome is delicious and worth being patient for — just try not to eat it all lol 😉

Homemade Monkey Bread with a Buttery Vanilla Glaze

Prep Time: 4 hours
Cook Time: 35 mins
Total Time: 4 hours 35 mins

Print Recipe

Description

adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

Ingredients

For the Dough

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons melted
1 cup warm milk (about 110 degrees)
⅓ cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 package rapid-rise yeast or instant yeast (2¼ tsp)
3¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
2 tsp table salt

For the Brown Sugar Coating

1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled

For the Glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
super tiny pinch of salt to taste

Instructions

For the Dough:

Adjust oven rack to medium-low position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Butter Bundt pan with 2 tablespoons softened butter. Set aside.
In large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar, and yeast. Mix flour and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook, (see below for making Monkey Bread without a mixer). Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with cooking spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in warm oven until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.

For the Sugar Coating:

While dough is rising, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl. Set aside.

To Form the Bread:

Gently remove dough from bowl, and pat into rough 8-inch square. Using bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces. (See photos 1 and 2 below.)
Following photo 3 below, roll each dough piece into a ball. Working one at a time, dip balls in melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip back into bowl. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then, following photo 4 below, layer balls in Bundt pan, staggering seams where dough balls meet as you build layers.
Cover Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in turned-off oven until dough balls are puffy and have risen 1 to 2 inches from top of pan, 50 to 70 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap pan and bake until top is deep brown and caramel begins to bubble around edges, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

For the glaze:

While bread cools, whisk confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla extract and softened butter in small bowl until lumps are gone. Add the super tiny pinch of salt and incorporate. Using whisk, drizzle glaze over warm monkey bread, letting it run over top and sides of bread. Serve warm.

Monkey Bread Without a Mixer:

In step 2, mix flour and salt in large bowl. Make well in flour, then add milk mixture to well. Using wooden spoon, stir until dough becomes shaggy and is difficult to stir. Turn out onto lightly floured work surface and begin to knead, incorporating shaggy scraps back into dough. Knead until dough is smooth and satiny, about 10 minutes. Shape into taut ball and proceed as directed.

Notes

Store leftovers in an air-tight container for up to 2 days. Reheat in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds.

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The Ultimate Lemon Bundt Cake

December 5, 2011 42 Comments

When life hands you lemons, make lemon bundt cake!

This is the ultimate lemon bundt cake recipe, I kid you not. It has everything — superior lemon flavor, a moist crumb, buttery flavor, a delicious yet tender crust, and a tangy sweet glaze. I had so much fun baking this, and I appreciate the fact that it had my apartment smelling like lemons and sugar for hours on end 😀

If you don’t own a bundt pan, I highly recommend this baby from NordicWare (the makers of the original bundt cake pan). This pan is everything — easy to clean, has great weight, it’s just the sweetest thing ever.

Anyway, making a lemon bundt cake is easy, but the hard part is capturing a good amount of lemon flavor. Most times it just bakes off, and becomes way too subtle…but this recipe fixes that. Soaking the lemon zest in pure lemon juice does something epic here that I can’t really explain..but trust me, it’s magical. The cake is actually very light and fluffy the day it’s baked, but then the next day it becomes more dense, like a typical bundt cake. It’s super buttery, not too sweet, and just pure lemony perfection. It would taste great with berries too 🙂 I will be making another one of these for my office, because I know it’ll disappear in less than a half hour.

butter…and lots of it

I brushed my bundt cake with butter and flour

3 juicy lemons ready to be zested

like so..

chop the zest up to release even more lemon flavor

juice them

tangehhhh

soak the zest in the lemon juice while you prepare the other parts of the cake, about 15 to 20min

dry ingredients

buttermilk, vanilla, lemon zest/juice

your 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

creamed sugar/butter

everybody in the pool! don’t overmix!!

the batter is all mixed up and ready

scoop it into your bundt pan

smooth it down so it’s even

bake it!

aint she purty?

beautiful crust

flip her over onto a cooling rack after 10min of cooling in the pan

voila

closeup — I wish you could smell this

the first drizzle of glaze

this is what it looks like after an hour…all soaked in…and ready for more glaze

so pour it on

oh yum

she’s so ready

Good lord…

The Ultimate Lemon Bundt Cake

Author: Resha from CarnalDish
Yield: 12-14 servings

Print Recipe

Description

from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients

For the Cake:

3 lemons, zest grated and saved, then juiced for 3 tbsp juice (see note below)
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup low-fat buttermilk (preferably)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
18 tbsp unsalted butter (2¼ sticks), at room temperature
2 cups sugar

For the Glaze:

2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (see note below)
1 tablespoon buttermilk
2 cups confectioners sugar (8 ounces)

Instructions

FOR THE CAKE:

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour (alternatively, brush pan with mixture of 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon melted butter). Mince lemon zest to fine paste (you should have about 2 tablespoons). Combine zest and lemon juice in small bowl; set aside to soften, 10 to 15 minutes.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Combine lemon juice mixture, vanilla, and buttermilk in medium bowl. In small bowl, gently whisk eggs and yolk to combine. In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes; scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium speed and add half of eggs, mixing until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining eggs; scrape down bowl again. Reduce to low speed; add about one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until just incorporated after each addition (about 5 seconds). Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at medium-low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour. Scrape into prepared pan.
Bake until top is golden brown and wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into center comes out with no crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes.

FOR THE GLAZE:

While cake is baking, whisk 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth, adding more lemon juice gradually as needed until glaze is thick but still pourable (mixture should leave faint trail across bottom of mixing bowl when drizzled from whisk). Cool cake in pan on wire rack set over baking sheet for 10 minutes, then invert cake directly onto rack. Pour half of glaze over warm cake and let cool for 1 hour; pour remaining glaze evenly over top of cake and continue to cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Cut into slices and serve.

Notes

You will need between five and six tablespoons of lemon juice for this recipe. Because the amount of juice can vary from lemon to lemon, we suggest you first measure the juice from the three lemons you have zested, then juice a fourth lemon if necessary.

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