Let me eat cake

Last night we had our dear friends Matthew and Lynnea over for dinner. We ate cabbage and cauliflower manicotti, which was cheesy and tasty, and we had a lovely time, as we usually do when we have friends over. If it were likely to be an unpleasant evening I assure you, we wouldn't invite people to dine with us. So blahblahblah dinner.

But last night is significant for me because it's the first time I've ever baked a cake. 

"Gasp!" you say? Well it's true. Not that I haven't beaten together a box mix from time to time as a kid, but my general view of cooking until I was 30 was "if you learn someone might expect you to do it from time to time." Once I discovered that I might be willing to cook for myself or others, there was a lot of catching up to do.

Fortunately Martha Stewart entered my life a few months ago in the form of her Living magazine, and in the October/Halloween issue she included the recipe for Spiced Lemon Cake.

While I don't usually like lemon baked goods, this cake is a dream. Light, moist, lemony-but-not-too-lemony, with just a hint of cardamom. The glaze adds sweetness without being cloying or overpowering. And apart from zesting the lemons, it was easy-peasy to make. I guess I need to get one of those fancy microplane zester thingies? We have one kind of similar to this, but it didn't work at all. I ended up using the smaller side of our cheese grater, and ended up with closer to a teaspoon of zest than a tablespoon, but I don't think the cake was any worse for it.

I didn't think of taking a picture at the time, and this is all that was left this morning, when I unwrapped it, yes, for breakfast. I know I'm supposed to be trying to lose weight, but I've basically given that up until the new year. 

Spiced Lemon Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

For the cake:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan (if you choose Martha's way)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for pan (my way)

1 tsp lemon zest 

3/4 tsp ground cardamom

2 large eggs

1/4 cup sour cream

For the glaze/frosting:

6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 375F. 

Martha says to butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan, but my grandmother taught us to sugar the cake pan instead. It keeps the cake from sticking, and also makes the subtlest crumbly sweetness on the outside of the cake. I think it works better, and you never get a floury edge, which I hate. I also only have a 9-inch cake pan, so that's what I used. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter, granulated sugar, zest, and cardamom with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in 3 tablespoons lemon juice. It curdled here, which freaked me out as a novice, but Lynnea later assured me that cake batter always separates and looks curdly, and that it's completely normal. Reduce speed to medium-low, and beat in flour in 3 scoops, alternating with sourcream, ending with flour. So a total of 5 additions. Pour batter into cake pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean--about 25 minutes in my 9-inch pan. 
Turn out onto wire rack. Let cool, top side up. Whisk powdered sugar with remaining lemon juice until smooth, then pour over the cooled cake. I put the rack on a cookie sheet to catch the glaze run-off, because I didn't want it pooled around the cake. Later I may or may not have eaten the extra glaze right off the baking sheet with a spoon.

While we all agreed that I didn't need to cool the cake as much as I had, it was delicious at room temperature with coffee. 

And again the same way for breakfast this morning.