Lemon Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Source:  Bon Appetit Magazine

1 c unsalted butter, room temperature
3 c flour
1 T baking powder
2 t salt
2.5 c sugar
finely grated zest of 8 lemons
4 large eggs
1 c buttermilk
3/4 c apricot or peach preserves
1/4 c fresh lemon juice

oven at 350
butter and flour Bundt pan  (use a 12 cup pan - -larger than the standard bundt pan). Whisk baking powder, salt and 3 cups of flour together.  Combine sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl.  Using your fingertips, rub together until lemon sugar is well blended.  Add 1 cup of butter to lemon sugar.  Using electric mixer on high speed, beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating between additions and occasionally scraping down sides and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula, until mixture is light and very fluffy, about 4 minutes longer.  Reduce speed to low.  Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Scrape batter into prepared pan, smooth top.  Bake cake until golden brown and beginning to pull away from sides of pan, 60-70 minutes.  Transfer  to a wire rack and let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Invert cake onto rack, remove pan, and let cool completely.

Combine preserves (I used half apricot and half peach -- mostly b/c that's what I had at home), and lemon juice in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, redue heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally until glaze is reduce to half a cup (6-8 minutes).  Strain glaze into small pitcher, discard solids in strainer.  I must have used too fine of a sieve, b/c my glaze was not straining at all -- after a while I got tired of waiting, and just dumped the glaze, solids and all on top of the cake -- probably sacrificed some silkiness of the glaze....but I was/am willing to live with that.  Pour glaze over cooled cake and let sit for at least 10 minutes.

I picked this recipe b/c Bon Appetit's dessert recipes are generally top notch.  I also love lemon desserts, and the texture that buttermilk lends to pastries.  On a more private note -- last time I made a bundt cake, it got stuck in the pan, and turned into a hot mess, so I was eager to prove to myself that I can, in fact properly prepare a bundt pan, and unmold a bundt cake.

The hardest part of the recipe was zesting 8 lemons.  And then, you only use one of the lemons for the glaze, so you are left with 7 lemons that have no skin left (probably a good time to make a nice pitcher of lemonade).  The recipe was interesting in that there seemed to be a lot of sugar -- in the end, I think it was necessary to balance the tartness of the lemons, and also made a outside of the cake nice and crusty.  Cake baked perfectly and unmolded  easily.

It's delicious.  Very lemony, with the slight, almost oily finish from the essential oils in the zest (trust me, it's a good thing -- like you are eating real lemon, and not an extract).  The cake has a beautiful, tender texture thanks to the buttermilk.  The glaze is also very tart, which makes this a delicious and refreshing yet comforting dessert.  Highly recommend.