My friend Ilina is raising two foodies. One really wanted a moist bundt cake of some sort. They made a lemon one and weren’t impressed.
Now I have no idea what his definition of moist is. Mine is that I can eat a slice of cake and not have to consume 12 ounces of milk or coffee in order to choke it down. His could be more along the lines of so moist it jiggles. The thought of that makes me screw up my face and say, “EWWWWW!”
But then I thought about my dad’s favorite cake – the hot milk cake, more specifically Mrs. Holloway’s hot milk cake. And then I thought about my aunt Cindy poking holes in her rum cake and pouring a rum/sugar glaze all over it. And then I realized there was a way to make the cake to suit either me or young Master Ewen.
This is the result of the second attempt. We will not discuss the first attempt other than, “EWWWWW!”
Until I know which of her sons has requested this cake, I am calling it…
“What’s the Bird Deal” Lemon Pound Cake
Cake:
6 eggs
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup milk
2 sticks butter
Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour bundt pan.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In a larger bowl, beat eggs for two minutes, slowly add sugar, then extract and lemon juice. Add in the dry ingredients.
In a small saucepan, melt butter in the milk. Do not allow to boil! As soon as the butter is melted, slowly pour this into your batter and mix well.
The batter will be thin. Pour into prepared bundt pan and bake for one hour. Test the cake for doneness with a toothpick. You want to see a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for ten minutes before inverting onto cake plate.
The Lemonade Glaze
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
While the cake is baking, combine the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and slowly heat until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside until cake is done and has been placed on cake plate.
Using a toothpick, poke holes in top of pound cake. Slowly pour the lemonade glaze over the pound cake. Allow it to soak into the cake.
Vanilla Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons hot water
Combine the first three ingredients in a small bowl. Mix in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the glaze is the consistency that you want. For example, I like to pour my glaze over a cake. Others prefer to have something a bit thicker and more on the order of a thin icing.
Pour or spread over top of pound cake.
NOTES: if you don’t want to use both glazes, I suggest using the vanilla glaze and adding 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract in order to get a lemony taste. The cake is more subtle on the lemon flavor.
I ended up not using all of the lemon glaze. One slow pass over the cake with the glaze was all I wanted to do. (mostly because I didn’t want an overly moist cake)
The cake was moist for 6 days after being made. Six days.
Do NOT cover the cake until it has cooled. Unless you like soggy cake.
The bundt pan I chose to use was very heavy. If you are using a thinner pan, please check your cake for doneness at the 45 minute mark.