Lemon Cake

I'm not sure why, but I've always been intrigued by lemon cakes. So I'd been wanting to make one for awhile. I decided to try it as my brother's 18th birthday cake. The reciped is from Cake Love by Warren Brown. He calls it the "Light and Lemony Cake." It uses both fresh lemon zest and segmented lemons and it achieves a very nice lemon flavor, but not too strong. My brother loves raspberries and so I made the Italian buttercream frosting and flavored about half of it with vanilla extract and the other half with raspberry puree (see recipes on this blog). It was every bit as tasty as it looks!

Dry Ingredients

• 8 ½ ounces (1 ½ cups + 3 T.) flour (high altitude: 9 ounces; 1 ¾ cups + 1 T.)
• 2 T. potato starch
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. baking soda

Liquid Ingredients

• 2 lemons
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup heavy cream (high altitude: ¼ cup + 2 tsp.)
• ¼ cup whole milk (high altitude: ¼ cup + 2 tsp.)
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. lemon extract (optional)

Creaming Ingredients

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 16 ounces (2 cups) extra-fine granulated sugar (high altitude: 15 ounces; 1 ¾ cups + 2 T.)
• 2 T. turbinado sugar (or dark brown sugar)
• 1 T. lemon zest
• 4 eggs, room temperature (high altitude: 5 eggs)
• 1 egg yolk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (335 for convection oven). Set the rack in the middle of the oven.

Zest lemons and then segment the zested lemons. Lemon zest is the very outside portion of the peel (not the white part). It is filled with the lemony flavor. There are citrus zesters you can buy, but I found that a vegetable peeler works very well. Use the peeler to lightly peel the exterior portion of the lemon peel (be careful not to get the bitter white part)--it helps to wiggle the peeler back and forth slightly as you are doing it. Then use a knife to chop up the peeled portion into pieces as tiny as possible. Segmenting lemons involves cutting all the white away from the lemon and then cutting out wedges containing only the meat of the fruit. If you are unsure, an internet search will yield directions (and even video) on how to do these things.

Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside. Measure the liquid ingredients into a separate bowl and whisk to combine. Don't try to break up the lemon segments—the mixer will take care of that.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (using the paddle attachment), cream together the butter, cream cheese, sugars, and lemon zest on lowest speed until it starts sticking to the sides of the bowl. (This is a very important step. Be sure to do it on the lowest setting. It takes about 5 minutes for this step.)

With mixer still on lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time followed by the yolk. Allow to fully incorporate after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape sides of bowl.

With mixer still on low speed, add the dry ingredients and liquid ingredients alternating, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. This should take about 60 seconds in total (3 to 5 steps of alternating adding). Don't wait for the ingredients to be fully incorporated before adding the next.

Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix on medium speed for 15 to 20 seconds.

Prepare the pans. For 9-inch-round cakes, grease and flour only the bottom of the pans; do not spray the sides. For cupcakes, grease or use cupcake liners (also lightly spray the top of the cupcake pan to help release any overflowing crowns). For Bundt pan spray generously with nonstick spray. Deposit batter equally into each 9-inch round and smooth with spatula (for cupcakes, fill cups ~2/3 full; for Bundt cake fill to ~3/4 full). Bake 9-inch rounds for 30 minutes (high altitude: 35 minutes); Bundt cake 45-50 minutes (high altitude: 50 minutes); cupcakes for 22 minutes (high altitude: 32 minutes). Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into center of cake. Cake is done when there are just a touch of crumbs clinging to the toothpick. The cakes edges may pull away from the pan. Allow to cool to room temperature, 25-30 minutes, before carefully removing from pan. For Bundt cake, allow to cool 5-10 minutes before removing from pan. May be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 5 days prior to frosting (not necessary, but if you are cutting it into a four-layer cake it will be much easier to work with when cold).