Meyer Lemon Love

Every January it is time to rejoice in the return of the Meyer lemon season! I have written before about Meyer lemons, last year when I made Meyer lemon curd from Marisa McClellan’s awesome book Food in Jars. (If you buy it through this link I make a few cents.) If you’re not familiar with these lemons, they are sweet, thin skinned and have a lovely fragrance. They’re delicious.

I made some more lemon curd yesterday, and now that I finally own a bundt pan, I made a Meyer lemon bundt cake that is as delicious as it is beautiful to behold. Bundt is a pan, not a type of cake, and you can make almost any cake in a Bundt pan. It won’t work for layer cakes, but it’s great for pound cake recipes. The hole in the center of the pan gives you extra surface, and also distributes the heat better through the batter. And Bundt pans come in all kinds of beautiful shapes. Mine is fairly basic, and still the cakes it turns out are pretty.

One of the most frustrating things about baking a Bundt cake, or really any cake, is the anxiety of whether or not the cake will come out of the pan intact. When making a regular layer cake I rely on a parchment circle at the bottom of the pan, and buttered and floured sides. That isn’t possible with a Bundt cake, and last time I tried using a piece of wax paper with a hunk of butter, and it worked, but was messy and annoying. This time I put softened butter into the pan, and was able to spread it around easily and get it into every corner with a pastry brush. A dusting of flour and my cake released like a dream.

It was such a good cake, when we finished off the last piece my daughter said we just need to make another one!

Meyer Lemon Cake

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 Large eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 cups purpose flour
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract
• 3 Meyer lemons zested and juices (for glaze)
• 3/4 cups sugar (for glaze)

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350F Butter and flour a 10 cup Bundt pan

Step 2

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy Add eggs one at a time, making sure the first one is fully incorporated before added the second

Step 3

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients, baking powder, flour, salt then add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until smooth then add the lemon rind and extract Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, until a tester comes out clean

Step 4

Remove cake and let cool in pan for ten minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn it out onto a cooling rack While cake is cooling in pan, heat lemon juice and sugar until sugar is melted

Step 5

Poke cake all over with a skewer or toothpick Place a plate under the cooling rack below cake Brush cake with glaze, using all of it, including what has collected on the plate under the cake Cool before slicing