OR: "That Cake I Called You On The Actual Telephone About"
Against the advice of my muffiny mid-section, I have been making cakes lately. I'm not a great baker, since I know very little about the science of how flour and shit works, but I can follow a recipe pretty good!
Also, I LOVE lemon cake. Don't get me started. HOWEVER. As we discussed on the phone, box mixes labeled 'Lemon Cake' don't taste a whole lot like lemons. They taste like the vague concept of lemon flavor as imagined by someone who was raised on the international space station.
ALSO-also, yeah I could make a fresh lemon cake from scratch, but I'd rather Sandra Lee it up and just pimp out a damn box mix. I have, like, five minutes after work to make food happen.
Which brings me to this recipe. I do not remember where I even got it. Well...yes I do, I got it from an internet forum about a year ago, but I can't find that particular post (or the poster who made it) now, so let's just say "I stole this recipe" and call it done.
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MUCH BETTER BOXED LEMON CAKE
• 1 box lemon cake mix
• 1 small box instant lemon pudding
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 lemon
For the glaze:
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Fresh lemon juice
Basically, you will be taking a box mix, and lemoning the hell out of it. Just throw in anything that might be even remotely related to lemons. SOUR cream. Haha. Get it?
Preheat the oven as directed on the cake mix box. (I went with 325 for my pan.) The recipe suggests I carefully add the ingredients one at a time, beating them all together on medium speed for 2 minutes.
So I dumped everything in a bowl and stirred it around by hand. It was very, very thick. Like, so thick that I called you to ask if this was normal for cake batter. Should it be the consistency of peanut butter? I don't really understand what's going on.
Our brainstorming session led me to pour in about 1/3 - 1/2 cup milk to be safe. Good enough!
Grease a Bundt pan (I usually go for shortening-and-flour, but you can spray it with Pam or use real butter or whatever. You know these things), and pour in the batter. Bake for the time specified on the cake mix box (45 minutes-ish). Remove from oven when done, and allow it to cool.
That thick, scary batter rose and fluffed up like a dream. It was a little bit crumbly, which may have been the milk I added? But it was not as dense or heavy as I had feared! It was great. And EXTREMELY lemon flavored. Everything I hated about box mixed lemon cake - REPAIRED.
Now some thoughts on the glaze...
To make the glaze, mix powdered sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl. Add lemon juice, one teaspoon at a time, stirring well after each addition, until it is the consistency of a thick cake batter. (Well, you would know about thick, recipe.)
Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cooled cake, allowing it to run down the sides.
My glaze was thinner than described, because I used all the juice I had (one whole lemon). Waste not.
AND OH MY GOD. That glaze was like lemon crack. It was just...pure lemon. I'm still not sure that's the way to go with this cake, because...yes, I wanted MORE LEMON FLAVOR. But holy crap. Seriously. So possibly a more complimentary glaze, and not more of the same flavor, is the way to go. Maybe just a plain sugar glaze, or like you suggested - a cream cheese-based icing.
That's how I felt last night eating a warmish piece of this cake. This morning (yes, for breakfast), I think I changed my mind. The glaze and cake had time to meld together overnight, into a...a...a sort of...it was...kind of like...
Dammit. There are only two words that work here, and I hate them both. But those two words are:
Luscious
Moist
And I apologize for that.
"CAN YOU HEAR MY CAKE?!"
ReplyDeletei have straight up opened up this comment box to comment while i read because i have 8 million questions.
1. why did you not call my cell? how did you KNOW i was at mom's, stalker? STALKER.
ok, no really.
in MY HEAD (scary place) bundt cakes are for fall and winter. maybe not even winter. i don't know why. i just...can't...do it...in the spring and summer. so this cake, is the consistency okay to cut, like to level out from an 8" or 9" round pan? for icing? i mean, like, will it hold up icing or is it really tough and almost-too-sturdy like most bundt cake recipes? maybe you'll answer that later in the post. i should probably be reading.
i wonder what could be used in lieu of the milk to reduce the crumbliness?
yeah, glaze generally has to soak in...almost never tastes right first bite!
i am conceptualizing some crazy shit - yes, i scrapped the idea for coconut cream cheese lemon icing?! because, i mean, come on. that's dumb.
can't wait to make this!
would this luscious, moist cake be good for a luncheon of nuggets?
1. check your phone, dude. i called your cell first, then when you didn't answer i assumed you were at mom's. and you WERE. HA!
ReplyDelete2. oooh good question. it might actually be hard to ice, because it is pretty crumbly. like i said, that MIGHT be the milk i added, or it might just be a bundt recipe and that's that. it's not as heavy as the fig cake, if that helps? i'm certain it can be made round and ice-able.
3. that's not dumb! lemon + coconut + cream cheese is basically lemon yum yum in CAKE FORM. right?
my head was buzzing all night (SUGAR wait, what?) and i found a note i scrawled in the dark to myself in a half-asleep fever dream. that note said "ORANGE cake with honey/butter glaze pecans?!"
apparently i'm also feeling the inspiration! WOO!
4. and now i hate you.