Famous Lemon Cake
Yesterday marked one month since my mom passed. It feels like it’s been a lifetime. When I started the blog the first thing I made was my favorite dish she would make, turkey tetrazzini. Since then I’ve come a long way. Not just in my baking, but my photography, control of emotions, ability to handle and talk about my mental health, and lastly I became a husband and father.
I think I knew my mom had some recipes, but I didn’t realize she had so many in a recipe box. They all mostly hand written in her hand writing. I found the one for turkey tetrazzini and the one for the bundt cake that’s on this site. What I also found is a recipe called “Famous Lemon Cake”. I’d never heard of it before. She never mentioned having one. She wasn’t a big fan of lemon either so maybe that’s why. Some of the recipes had names of them. I’m assuming they’re from the person who gave her the recipe. Peg - I’m looking at you. There are some with your name on them! They’re coming if I can find them again.
There’s something about seeing the recipes in my mom’s hand writing that’s just so comforting now.
Having never seen this recipe before, and not having baked or created any cake recipes yet, I was fascinated by some of the ingredients. There’s only egg yolks, 1 Tablespoon of baking powder, and it uses cake flour. I know cake flour has a lower amount of protein (7-9%) than AP flour. This allows for a more delicate crumb than AP or Bread flours. For the leavening of the cake we’re using a lot of lemon juice and a lot of baking powder. Since baking powder reacts to heat as well as on contact this creates a huge and fluffy cake. If you look closely you’ll see that my bundtlettes were over filled and rose out of their pan. Oops. They still taste great.
It seems odd to me that there’s only a stick and a half of butter, but again I’m still pretty new to cake. I’m betting that leaves less fat in the batter allowing for a light yet delicate flavor and texture. In the picture above you can really see how many eggs there are. Seems odd that you’d only use the yolks, but I haven’t had the time to research why you’d only do the yolks. I can’t recall which part of the egg is really the binder. What you could do, so as not to waste them, you could use the whites for a meringue and put little dollops on the top. My other thought, which you can tell I didn’t do, would be a lemon glaze on top. Sweet and tart all at the same time.
These are the first bundtlettes I’ve ever made. The pan style is the same as the one my mom used to have. It’s why I chose this shape. Having 6 little bundts to play with really allowed me to try out a few different things with the pictures. I’m gathering info from here and there on how to stage and shoot pictures. These shots use the waterfall technique, where your largest props are at the back, and the rule of thirds, to make a more pleasing picture. I must say I’ve impressed the hell out of myself with these. I didn’t even take them into Lightroom for edits. These pictures are as shot and as staged. To date these are my favorite photos I’ve taken. It’s a bit more fitting that it’s a recipe that my mom had, that I didn’t know she had, and that makes me feel as close to her as I can be in her absence. It’s crazy what baking can mean to me.
Ingredients
3/4 Cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
8 egg yolks
2 1/2 Cups cake flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 Cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest from 1 large lemon
juice from 1/2 of large lemon (roughly 2 tablespoons)
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 325
Zest the lemon and set aside. Juice half the lemon and set aside
In a stand mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
In a separate bowl divide the yolks from the eggs
Whisk egg yolks until lighter in color
mix eggs into creamed butter and sugar
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt (resift 3 times)
Add 1/3 dry ingredients mixing until combined
add 1/3 of the milk mixing until combined
repeat steps 6 and 7 until the dry ingredients and milk are combined
Add vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice and beat for 2 minutes
Bake in a greased pan (butter and flour) at 325 for 35-40 minutes for bundlettes and 60 minutes for a normal 6 cup bundt pan
