For Easter I baked a lemon bundt cake with a rainbow surprise. I used a recipe I found on the blog The Pudge Factor. They in turn adapted it from the King Arthur Flour Lemon Bliss Cake recipe. It took me some time to decide on something good to make for Easter. My research included Mary Berry’s Easter special. I strongly considered making her Simnel Cake, but I wasn’t really convinced everyone would like it. Marzipan is one of divisive those things like licorice that people love or hate.
My wife suggested a bundt cake so that I could show off the fancy new bundt pan I had gotten for Christmas. So I searched a bit and settled on this lemon cake. I thought the color swirl effect would make it a showstopper, and it did.
Easter Surprise Lemon Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 8 oz Unsalted Butter room temperature
- 2 cups Granulated Sugar
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- Zest of 2 Lemons
- Assorted Gel Food Colorings
Lemon Simple Syrup
- 1/3 cup Lemon Juice
- 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
Lemon Glaze
- 1 1/2 Cups Confectioners’ Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
- Add salt and baking powder and beat until combined.
- Add the flour and the milk in 3 batches. Alternate 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup milk, 3 times.
- Add The lemon zest and mix until all combined.
- Split the batter into 3 or 4 equal parts, depending how many colors you plan to use. Mix a different color into each portion until you get the color you want.
- Grease the bundt pan. Add about half of each color of cake batter to make the first layer of batter. Use a spatula or some other tool to swirl the colors around a bit.
- Add the rest of the batter(s) to make a second layer. Swill this one as well. Tap the pan a few times to even it out and remove any bubbles.
- Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes (until a toothpick comes out cleanly).
- While the cake bakes, make the simple syrup. Stir together the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over low heat, until the syrup has dissolved.
- Remove the cake when done and let it rest/cool for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes brush the lemon simple syrup all over the cake. Use all of it, this gives the cake most of it’s flavor.
- Let the cake cool completely.
Glaze
- Mix the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice together. You want the mixture so thick that it will just pour. Add more sugar if needed to get the consistency you want.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cake. Decorate with anything else you want. I added some small sugar flowers that added a nice touch.
It came out really nice, but was kind of tale of two cakes. The top, where the simple had soaked in, with the addition of the glaze, was really tasty and really lemony. As you got further down/in to the cake, it definitely lacked some punch. If I were to make it again, I’d probably add more lemon zest to the cake batter. I’d also use a skewer to make holes in the cake, to allow the syrup to penetrate the cake better. Nonetheless , I got a lot of compliments on the cake, so it was a success.
