LEMON BUTTERMILK CAKE

Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake

This light, moist, lemony cake is genius for so many reasons: It’s powerfully puckery. It’s got both more fresh lemon juice and zest than you’d expect or normally see in a recipe, and the flavor holds up under heat. It’s given even more flavor because it’s soaked—really soaked—with a lemon and sugar syrup that seeps into the cake slowly and provides moistness, a little more keepability, and a lot more lemon intensity.

Ingredients

• Fine, dry bread crumbs, for dusting pan

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• Finely grated rind of 3 large lemons (juice will be used below for Glaze)

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• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

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• 2 2/3 cups (354 grams) all-purpose flour

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• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

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• 1/2 teaspoon salt

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• 1/2 pound (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing pan

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• 2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar

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• 3 large eggs

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• 1 cup buttermilk

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• Glaze:

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• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

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• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

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Steps

Directions

• Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350°F. You will need a tube pan with a 10-cup capacity (that is generally 9 inches in diameter); it can be a pan with a design or a 9 x 3 1/2–inch tube pan without a design. If you use a pan with a design, butter it (even if it is nonstick) and then dust it all over with fine, dry bread crumbs. If you use the plain 9 x 3 1/2–inch tube pan, butter it, line the bottom with parchment paper cut to fit, butter the paper, and dust all over with crumbs. With either pan, tap to shake out excess crumbs over a piece of paper. Set aside.
  Place the lemon rind and juice in a small cup and set aside.
  Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
  In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions and the buttermilk in two, beginning and ending with the dry. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, and beat only until smooth after each addition.
  Remove from the mixer and stir in the lemon rind and juice.
  Turn into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry. The cake will be deeply golden brown and will have begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.
  While the cake is baking, make the glaze: Mix the juice and sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally.
  Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Then cover it with a rack and very carefully turn over the pan and the rack and place it over a large piece of foil. Remove the pan. If you have used a paper lining, peel it off now.
  With a pastry brush, brush the glaze over the top, sides and tube of the hot cake.
  Let stand until completely cool.