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Monday, March 14, 2011
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Breakfast / cake Ina Garten's Lemon Cake ... with a twist
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 8:00 AM
I love Ina Garten's Lemon Cake. It's so tart, tangy, and tasty. Ina's cake is a lemon loaf cake, soaked with lemon syrup, and then topped with lemon glaze.
Craving a slice, I was set on making it this past weekend. I ran into a little problem though – I had no lemons in the house.
When life gives you no lemons, what's a girl to do? I was forced to get creative and I made a grapefruit version of her loaf cake.
The grapefruit cake turned out surprisingly well. It was still tart and sweet, but not as tart as the lemon cake. The grapefruit flavor was a nice change. The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup lemon zest, but I cut the amount of grapefruit zest to just 2 tablespoons, as grapefruit peel is a bit bitter.
Lemon Cake, adapted from Ina Garten
(To make it a grapefruit cake, use 2 Tbs grapefruit zest in place of the lemon zest, and replace all lemon juice with grapefruit juice.)
Cake:
½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Syrup:
½ cup sugar
½ cup lemon juice
Glaze:
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon zest.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.
Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small bowl. Microwave for one minute and stire until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, allow them to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans; spoon the lemon syrup over them. Allow the cakes to cool completely. Drizzle on glaze.
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