ICED BUTTERY LEMON BUNDT CAKE

Serves 10 to 12

IF YOU HAVE HAD TO MUSCLE YOUR WAY AWAY FROM THE PASTRY CASE AT THE world’s most recognizable coffee shop (ahem, green mermaid creature, ahem), I completely understand the pull of it, especially that thick slab of lemony yellow loaf cake it has, the one with the cap of bleached white icing. Particularly at three p.m. when morale is low, you’re far from bedtime, and you’re grabbing a coffee but would rather it were a cocktail. There’s something undeniably attractive about that hunk of cottony iced lemon cake when you’re just trying to get over the hump. I feel you. Desperate times, and all of that.

But I’ll make you a deal. The next time that happens, if you can crowbar your face off the glass, pay for only a latte, and hightail your way home, I’ll give you my recipe for this thickly iced, buttery lemon Bundt. A cake you can feel good about making, and falling into face first, during your next midday slump.

CAKE:

Nonstick cooking spray for pan

¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons/211 g whole milk, at room temperature

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons pure lemon extract

3¼ cups/390 g cake flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for dusting

2¼ cups/450 g granulated sugar

1 heaping tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1¼ cups/282 g unsalted butter, at very soft room temperature

Yellow food coloring (optional)

DRIZZLE:

½ cup/100 g granulated sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

3 tablespoons/42 g freshly squeezed lemon juice

ICING:

1 cup/120 g confectioners’ sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons half-and-half or heavy whipping cream*

¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt

Prepare the cake: Position a rack to the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F/170°C. Coat a 12- to 15-cup/2.8 to 3.6 L light-colored metal Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Invert onto paper towels to prevent pooling in the bottom of the pan.

In a large measuring cup, whisk together the milk, lemon juice, eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the cake flour, granulated sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together on low speed and keep the mixer running. Add the butter pieces, 1 at a time, mixing until the mixture resembles chunky crumbs, like shortbread dough. Pour in three quarters of the milk mixture. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until pale and fluffy, 1½ minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Slowly pour in the rest of the milk mixture. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat for 30 seconds more. Scrape down the bowl well and beat for 30 seconds to finish. Beat in a few drops of yellow food coloring, if you wish.

Lightly flour the sprayed pan and tap out the excess.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until golden and a toothpick sunk deep into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes in the pan set on a wire rack. Loosen the edges and invert the cake onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet.

Prepare the drizzle: In a 1- to 1½-quart/1 to 1.4 L saucepan, combine the granulated sugar, butter, and lemon juice. Set the pan over medium heat. Stir gently to dissolve the sugar. While the cake is still warm, use a pastry brush to gradually soak the cake with glaze—it will take a few minutes for the cake to absorb all the liquid. Let cool completely.

Prepare the icing: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, half-and half or cream, vanilla, and salt and until smooth. Pour the icing over the cake. Let the icing set before slicing and serving.

*The lesser amount will give you a fondantlike icing that sets atop the cake in a thicker layer; more liquid will yield a thinner icing that cascades down the sides.

COUNTER CAKE TIPS

The most easily identifiable of all counter cakes is the Bundt, with its iconic shape. When the Bundt pan was created in the 1950s by Nordic Ware in Minneapolis, it was modeled after traditional German molds for Gugelhupf (also known as Bundkuchen). The pan didn’t quite take off at first, and the company considered discontinuing production several times (can you imagine?!). It wasn’t until 1966, when the “Tunnel of Fudge Cake” placed second in the Pillsbury Bake-Off and exploded into pop culture, that the Bundt pan landed in nearly every kitchen in America. At that point, Nordic Ware started churning out up to thirty thousand pans a day to keep up with demand.

Today, Nordic Ware is still family-owned, and 95 percent of its expansive product line is still made right in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The Bundt love lives on today, with the abundant look (a-Bundt-dant? Ugh, sorry) and ease of preparation being a symbol of Midwest hospitality. Nothing is quite as satisfying as baking a Bundt, tall and robust, that releases cleanly from the pan. Here’s a few tips to ensure Bundt success (and for any thicker, denser counter cake, quick bread, or loaf cake, for that matter).

HAVE YOUR CAKE INGREDIENTS ALL AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. When making a cake of significant volume, such as a Bundt or thick loaf cake, it’s very important that the batter be well mixed to get a nicely textured finished product. To speed things up, unwrap the butter and cut it into thin slices to help it to come to room temperature quickly, place your eggs in a bowl of balmy tap water, and take the chill off your milk or other liquids with the defrost setting of your microwave.

PREP A PROPER PAN. Bundt pans can be insanely intimidating to grease properly, with all their creases and crevices. My preferred method of greasing for most Bundts also happens to be the party line at Nordic Ware: Spray your pan all over with nonstick cooking spray, and then dust it with flour, tapping out the excess (add some cocoa powder to the flour for chocolate cakes, to avoid a ghostly floury layer). I take the extra step of inverting the pan onto paper toweling for a few moments to keep excess oil from pooling in the pan, before flouring it.

OVEN RACK PLACEMENT IS KEY. We often bake in the center of our oven, but thick cakes do better in the lower third of the oven. With more heat hitting the cake from the bottom of the oven, the center will bake thoroughly, without the top getting overdone during the long bake (usually an hour or more) that thicker counter cakes require.

AVOID SUPERDARK METAL PANS. The darker the pan, the thicker, firmer, and darker the crust of the cake. Some of the old-school Bundt pans have an almost black interior, and I avoid those. My favorite Bundt pans have a light-colored coating as their interior, silver- or gold-toned. I generally prefer light-colored metal pans for all baking, but especially for loaf cakes, to avoid burning the outer crust.

CONSIDER COOLING AS PART OF THE BAKE TIME. Remove the cake from the oven when a cake tester shows a few moist crumbs and isn’t completely clean—it will continue to bake from residual heat. Also, with a larger, heavier cake, the structure needs time to set before it can be safely unmolded without tearing or collapsing, but you also don’t want to wait so long that the cooled cake solders itself to the pan. Unless your recipe states otherwise, for Bundts, allow for 10 to 20 minutes of cooling time before inverting it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. For loaf cakes, go for 20 to 30 minutes before lifting it from the pan with its parchment liner and setting it on a rack.