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Easter and spring
It’s April now, which means that Easter is right around the corner, as is spring. We are so excited to be coming out of the darkness of winter, which this year has seemed particularly long. Although, to be honest, I think I probably feel that way every year!
Anyway, as the weather warms up and the days get longer, there is so much to look forward to. We love the change of winter into spring because it represents rebirth and brings with it a lot of newness. It feels refreshing and actually gives us a lot of inspiration in terms of recipes! For us, spring baking is all about freshness, color, and bright flavors.
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Today’s recipe
Today’s recipe is certainly all about bright flavor! Lemon is definitely a flavor to enjoy all year round, that’s for sure, and this delicious lemon bundt cake is the perfect recipe for an Easter or spring dinner party. The sponge itself has a subtle lemon flavor but is super moist and soft, as it should be. We love using a decorative tin – just make sure to brush every nook and cranny with vegetable oil or vegetable shortening to prevent sticking– because the final result is so impressive. You can get this specific blossom bundt pan here, or check out some of the other options from Nordicware here*!
Personally, we like to decorate our lemon bundt cake in a very simple way, just with a lovely lemon icing and some lemon zest on top, but you can make it as fancy as you like. A cream cheese frosting would also be delicious, if that’s what you’d prefer. Top with little Easter eggs or decorate with pastel colors and it will be even more fitting for Easter!
Ingredients you’ll need
For this lemon bundt cake, you’ll need butter, granulated sugar, eggs, baking powder, salt, all-purpose or plain flour, vanilla extract, lemon zest, milk, and lemon juice. We bake with unsalted butter, so if you use salted butter, make sure to reduce the amount of salt in the cake. You can use any milk you have on hand, but whole milk always gives the best taste and texture, although we often bake with semi-skimmed.
This cake is also adaptable to any citrus fruit that you have, so you could try making an orange or even a grapefruit version. To make the icing on top, all you’ll need is some powdered sugar and lemon juice, along with lemon zest to decorate, or sprinkles or candy.
How to make our lemon bundt cake
The base recipe for this bundt cake was adapted from the King Arthur Baking Classic Vanilla Bundt Cake. That recipe has a great technique for preventing a split batter, especially when it calls for a lot of eggs! First, make sure that all your ingredients are room temperature – this is critical for everything to mix together properly! If your eggs are cold from the fridge, put them in warm water for about 15 minutes before using them, and they should be fine. Zap your milk very quickly in the microwave so that it’s no longer fridge-cold. And make sure your butter is entirely softened, but not melted!
Start by creaming together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. You can also prep your bundt pan at this stage by brushing it or spraying it with vegetable oil. Do NOT miss out on this step, or else your cake will definitely stick. To the fluffy butter and sugar mixture, add in 3 room temperature eggs one by one and whisk your mixture together well after each egg is added.
Then, as you add in the next 3 eggs, alternate mixing in each egg with a few tablespoons of dry ingredients. Finally, alternate adding the rest of your dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Add lemon juice and lemon zest before adding the last of your dry mix. This may seem very tedious, but it is a great way of combining these ingredients so that your batter doesn’t split! You should be left with a silky-smooth batter that you can pour into the cake tin and bake. Decorate and enjoy!
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Påskekage (Easter Cake)
This amazing lemon bundt cake is the perfect centerpiece for your Easter or spring celebrations! This recipe was adapted from the King Arthur Baking Classic Vanilla Bundt Cake recipe.
Ingredients
CAKE BATTER
- 340 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 300 grams granulated sugar
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 360 grams all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- ~2 tbsp Lemon zest (from 3-4 small lemons, or 2 large ones)
- 120 ml milk, room temperature *you can heat this up for about 10-15 seconds in the microwave before adding!
- 60 ml lemon juice
ICING
- 113 grams powdered sugar
- Lemon juice
- Lemon zest for decoration *you can also use candied lemon peel, or candied lemon slices!
Instructions
- It's very important the ingredients for this cake are room temperature – make sure to take out your eggs and butter a few hours before using; you can always take fridge temperature eggs and put them in warm water for 10-15 minutes for a quicker way of getting eggs to room temperature. You can also pop the milk in the microwave before adding to get it to room temp.
- Preheat the oven to 350F (176C).
- Add the room temp, softened butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat together using the paddle attachment until the mixture is light in color and looks fluffy, about 5 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl a few times while it is mixing to incorporate everything.
- Mix the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, and salt – together in a separate bowl.
- Measure out the milk and combine with vanilla extract. Measure out the lemon juice separately. Zest the lemons and set aside the zest until ready to use.
- Prepare the bundt cake pan (we use a 10 cup bundt pan) by using a vegetable oil-based spray, vegetable shortening, or brushing the inside with vegetable oil. Try to avoid using butter, as it can sometimes cause more sticking.
- Starting with the first three eggs, add one egg at a time to the mixer with the butter and sugar mixture; let each egg fully mix in before adding the next one.
- Before adding the 4th egg, add in about 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture and mix until combined; this will help stop the batter from splitting.
- Add the 4th egg and mix until fully incorporated, then add another 2 tbsp of flour. Add the 5th egg, then 2 more tbsp of flour, and add the 6th egg, mixing between each addition of ingredients. If you do have a little bit of splitting/curdling occurring at this stage, don't worry too much!
- Once all the eggs have been added, add in about one-third of the rest of the flour mixture and mix until just combined (at this stage, we are also trying to avoid overmixing).
- Add in half of the milk and vanilla mixture and mix until just combined; then add another 1/3 of the flour mixture, and again mix until just combined. Add in the remaining half of the milk + vanilla and mix until just combined. Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl as well to make sure everything is incorporated.
- Add in the lemon zest and the lemon juice and mix until just combined.
- Now add the last third of the flour, and mix until just combined; the batter should be smooth and not curdled or split at this stage; if it looks really split, you can try adding flour one tablespoon at a time until the batter smooths out a little bit.
- Spoon the batter into the bundt pan and smooth out the top so it is even.
- Bake the cake on the center rack for 40-50 minutes, checking whether the top is getting too dark throughout. If it gets brown very quickly, cover with foil. When it's ready, a cake tester inserted in the cake should come out clean!
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for about 15-20 minutes before handling. Loosen any edges you can with a spatula, carefully. Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack; if it doesn't release immediately, let it sit for 10 more minutes and remove from the pan.
- Let the cake cool completely; when it is cool, prepare the glaze for the top by combining powdered sugar and lemon juice as needed to create a thick yet pourable glaze.
- If you need to, you can trim the bottom of the cake for it to sit flat on your cake stand/plate.
- Pour or spoon the icing over the cake and garnish with lemon zest, candied lemon slices, or candied lemon peel! Enjoy this beautiful showstopping cake for any spring occasion!
