Lemon Cake

I really believe this cake may be the best I've ever made. Co-diners have varying opinions, but this is my favorite. It has a moist crumb, a dense lemon flavor, holds up well, and keeps a couple of days, too. The recipe I used calls for a cup and a half of blueberries, which are a wonderful addition in season, but the lemon holds it own in this cake. Serve it with or without the glaze; I like to add the glaze for a bit of dressing up. Today the occasion is a celebration of a friend's new job, so it's complete with blueberries and glaze.


In our eagerness to get the celebration under way, I forgot to take a photo of the cake, ready for slicing. So this photo is from another occasion for celebration; it fits right in! This time I added a tablespoon of poppy seeds. Still delicious!

Here's the recipe!

Whisking dry ingredients

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup of sugar
3/4 cups butter, softened but not melted
4 large eggs

3 cups (13 3/4 ounces) GF flour, my favorite is at the end*
1 TB baking powder
1 1/2 tsp guar or xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup of sour cream
milk, enough to bring the measurement in the measuring cup with sour cream to measure 3/4 cup
1/3 cup lemon juice (this varies by the size and juiciness of the lemons, from 1 1/2 to 3 lemons). Reserve 1 TB for the glaze.
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract or my preference, Fiori di Sicilia

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (optional but delicious)

Optional glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 TB half and half, cream, or whole milk
1 TB fresh lemon juice

Method:
Heat your oven to 350 degrees
Butter and flour a bundt pan, set aside

Juice the lemons and set aside

Folding in dry ingredients

In a large bowl, cream, but do not beat, the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, one or two at a time.
Set aside

Sift or stir together the GF flour, baking powder, guar or xanthan gum, soda, and salt together to completely mix. If you're using the blueberries, stir them into these dry ingredients now. Set aside.

Combine the sour cream/milk mixture, lemon juice, and extracts, and whisk.

Alternating the flour mixture with the wet ingredients, begin mixing them into the butter/sugar mixture. If you're using the blueberries, do not use an electric mixer. Instead, fold the ingredients together using a silicone spatula or the cake will be purple-ish with bits of berry juice. On the other hand, you may like the lavender look!
 Please do not over beat.

Turn the batter, which will be very thick, into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a silicone spatula.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes, checking for doneness at the 50 minute point.
When done:
Cool on a wire rack for about ten minutes, then loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a sharp knife. Put the wire rack on top of the bundt pan and flip, so the cake comes to rest right side up to finish cooling.
When cool, glaze with the lemon juice, powdered sugar mixture.

Cooling

Glaze:
Sift 1 cup of powdered sugar into a bowl
Stir in 1 TB cream, half and half, or whole milk and 1 TB of lemon juice
Stir until completely combined, adding more liquid if it's too stiff to drizzle or more sifted powdered sugar of the glace is too thin.

I think you could use whole-milk yogurt for this cake, but I would not recommend Greek style. The batter tends to be quite thick and the Greek yogurt would make it too thick and dry.

Thank you, I'd love a slice!

* I always use Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice Flour for all of the flour in the formula for GF baking flour from America's Test Kitchen.
Here is their formula for the ATK flour blend:
24 ounces (4 1/2 cups plus 1/3 cup)
7 1/2 ounces (1 2/3 cups) brown rice flour
7 ounces (3/4 cup) potato starch
3/4 ounces (3 TB powdered milk
If you want to understand the science of why this works, please buy the ATK GF cookbook.

Ready to flip

Flipped!

Cooling

They say half a cake is better than none!