Lemon Buttermilk Cake

In this post, I’ve chosen to make a lemon buttermilk cake. Once again the recipe comes from the Culinary Institute of America’s book Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft. Unlike the biscotti, however, it needs to be at least halved so that it can be made in the home. And even at half the amount, it still made a large Bundt cake as well as two loaf pans worth.

Here is the mise en place for the cake. Only I’ve forgotten to include and ready an important ingredient: the buttermilk.

Getting ready to make the batter, the lemons get zested and the zest gets measured.

The dry ingredients go into their own bowl and get mixed.

The lemons get juiced and the buttermilk measured out.

The wet ingredients, except the lemon juice and buttermilk get mixed.

The dry ingredients go in a third at a time, alternately with thirds of the buttermilk. Once mixed, the lemon juice is mixed in.

The batter then gets measured into the Bundt cake pan. It’s now ready to be baked. The times will of course vary based on the size of pan and the temperature of your oven.

Here is the final product. The shape here is due to the Bundt cake pan that I used: a chrysanthemum.

Here’s a close up of the cake.

And a top down view of the cake.

At this point, it is ready to be eaten, but would be better with a lemon glaze. For that mix lemon juice with powdered sugar until smooth and somewhat thick. Spoon the glaze over the cake and let it seep in and dry.