Lemon Bundt cakes rank with tea parties, fresh lilac bouquets, and country dinners al fresco at the heart of gracious living. They are both refined and welcoming, and we are subject to their charms. We are also picky. With its subtle lemon flavor, crisp exterior, tender crumb, and impeccably balanced flavors, the following recipe is the epitome of every beautiful fantasy that lemon cakes evoke.
Cakes with see-through frosting are so pretty—we used only 4 ounces of cream cheese in the glaze to get this effect.
Grandma is the reason we’ve put so much energy into making this Bundt cake at home--she loves lemon cake. We make it to thank her for beds made with line-dried sheets, for hiding and seeking a plastic Easter egg in the flower beds over and over again, for cuddling up to read a book in one of her large, comfortable chairs. With Mother’s Day and Grandma’s April birthday, we’ve had ample opportunity through the years to think through our favorite qualities in a lemon cake and then to realize them in the following perfect incarnation below. We hope you find it perfect, too.
Supreme Lemon Bundt Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
grated zest of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lemon (about 2 1/2 Tbs)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Glaze
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Thoroughly grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan—we like to use Baker’s Joy spray.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Stir with a whisk to mix thoroughly together. Add lemon zest, then whisk some more.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and pale, for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add lemon juice and vanilla to buttermilk.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, then half the buttermilk-lemon mixture, then stir to combine. Add another third of flour (by this point I just keep the mixer running on low), the remaining buttermilk-lemon mixture, then the rest of the flour. Scrape the bottom of the bowl with a rubber scraper to make certain everything is thoroughly mixed, but don’t mix any more than you have to.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake the cake for 1 hour and 10 to 15 minutes (15 for us), or until a wooden skewer comes out clean, and the cake has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan. If you haven’t yet taken the cream cheese out of the refrigerator, do so now.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, gently slip a knife between the edges of the cake and the pan, including around the inner ring. Don’t slide the knife all the way down or you will spoil the appearance of the cake. Flip it upside down onto the wire cooling rack and let cool for an hour or more.
Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.
In a medium-sized bowl (or the large one that contained the dry ingredients), cream the cream cheese. Add lemon juice and cream some more. Then add powder sugar and cream until uniform. Spoon the glaze over the top of the cake in whatever pattern makes you happy. We like this best the day it is made, because the exterior is crisp, but if you thoroughly cover it, it will keep for three days at room temperature.
Bundt cakes look so pretty on a cake stand. If you don’t have one, you can put it on the lid of a large plastic bowl and cover it with the bowl turned upside down. Or use tinfoil.
For this version, we used 8 ounces of cream cheese in the glaze instead of 6.