crystallised lemon bundt cake

crystallised lemon bundt cake

• 20 Feb 2023

I saw Claire Saffitz make a crystallised Meyer lemon bundt cake on her YouTube channel a few weeks ago. I decided to make a version using regular lemons because a bit like key limes, I've never seen Meyer lemons for sale in my fruit shop. In the end, although I made a crystallised lemon bundt cake, I didn't end up using Claire's recipe. Here's what happened.

The cake component didn't look terribly different from my go to lemon cake, so at the last minute I used Aran Goyoaga's lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake recipe for the base, because well, it's just perfect. I've made the cake at least 5 times now and it's never failed me. I also read a few comments complaining that the sugar crystals in Claire's recipe dissolved in the glaze, so instead I used a crunchy lemon glaze from a David Lebovitz recipe.

So, here's the recipe for my crystallised lemon bundt cake, inspired by a Claire Saffitz recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Crystallised lemon bundt cake – adapted from an Aran Goyaga recipe
Cake
100g (⅔ cup) plain flour

2 tsp baking powder
pinch table salt
65g (⅔ cup) almond meal, any lumps broken up
135g caster sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
100mls (80g) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
2 tsp vanilla extract
125mls (½ cup) whole-milk yoghurt

Glaze - adapted from a David Lebovitz recipe
40 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
30g granulated or raw sugar
75g (½) cup icing sugar
1 tsp olive oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and flour a 5 cup bundt tin and place in the fridge until needed.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set to one side. In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Add the flour in batches alternating with the yoghurt and stir until a smooth batter has formed.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes. While the cake is cooling, make the glaze by whisking together the lemon juice, the granulated sugar, icing sugar and olive oil. Add more lemon juice if needed to make a pouring consistency.

Unmould the cake onto a wire rack set over a foil lined tray. Brush with the glaze; you can also brush on any glaze that drops into the pan beneath the cake. Let the cake cool completely before serving.

I used my favourite bundt tin because, touch wood, the cake always unmoulds perfectly.

I cut into the cake while it was still a little warm and despite that, the crumb was still perfect. 

I'm taking this cake into work for a farewell morning tea, so it hasn't been shared yet, but I have a feeling it will be an absolute winner. I'll let you know next week.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian