Snow is falling here in Washington and it’s absolutely beautiful. School was cancelled today and my guess is that it will be tomorrow as well. On our way to the kids ice-skating lessons yesterday evening we stopped at the store to prepare the pantry for the pending storm. My husband and the kids started collecting the usual items; noodles, lunch meats, breads and such and I headed for the baking aisle and dairy case for other staples.
Next we stopped at Starbucks to pick up warm drinks, mainly to hold to keep our hands warm during their lessons. There was a Lemon Bundt cake in the dessert case and at that moment, I was inspired to make my own.
The weather always plays a hand in what I am craving and these cold days, when time gets a bit more relaxed with a snow storm, I crave coffee cakes and slow cooker recipes that keep the house smelling delicious and warm. I love these days, unplanned like a midweek Saturday, when the weather wipes your calendar clear of all commitments and you have the perfect excuse to sit in your jammies and drink cocoa and wait for a cake to bake.
That’s what we did today; we waited for our Lemon Bundt cake to bake and planned our afternoon in the snow while it cooked. 40-45 minutes sounds long, but it’s about the perfect amount of time to coordinate sledding times with the neighbors, gather up hats, gloves, boots and snow pants and get a pot-roast ready in the slow cooker.
I hope you enjoyed your day too. If the weather didn’t give you an excuse to stay stuck in your neighborhood, this recipe can give you an excuse to slow down for even a moment or two.
Avec Baking Lemon Bundt Cake
3 cups Avec Baking All-purpose flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons baking powder
|½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
3 lemons, zest and reserve, then juiced
18 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs plus one additional egg yolk, room temperature
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar (I use Wholesome Sweeteners brand with no corn starch)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon buttermilk
For the cake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the Bundt pan by spraying with cooking oil (I prefer organic coconut oil; its flavor blends well into the cake) and lightly dusting with some AP flour. Zest the lemons to equal 3 tablespoons. If using a wide zester, mince the zest so it is nice and fine. Put in a small bowl and combine with the 3 tablespoons on lemon juice. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum and set aside. In another bowl, mix the sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla and lemon juice mixture. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk attachment, whip the butter until smooth and pale yellow. Add the butter and cream together for 1-2 additional minutes. Scrape the sides with a rubber spatula and add the eggs, one at a time. After each addition, bring the mixer up to high until you can see the egg has been well incorporated then scrape down the sides again before adding the next egg. When eggs have been incorporated, bring mixer down to low and add 1/3 of flour mixture followed by half of buttermilk mixture, slowly bring mixer up to medium until ingredients are just incorporated. Bring back down to low and add repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and remaining buttermilk mixture, mix on medium until incorporated then scrape down the sides and add remaining flour mixture. Make sure all ingredients have been well incorporated then bring mixer back up to high for 30 seconds. Remove from mixer stand and fold gently a few times to ensure batter is well combined, scraping all the way down the sides and bottom of bowl once. Transfer patter to prepared Bundt pan and gently smooth the top with a spatula and tap once or twice on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Place in preheated oven and bake for 40-45 minutes and top is golden browned and toothpick comes out clean. When done, remove from oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes then turn out onto cooling rack (careful, cake will be hot still but you want to remove it from the pan to cool – like with most gluten-free cakes). While the cake cools, whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth, adding additional sugar or buttermilk to reach desired consistency. Pour ½ of glaze over warm cake then let cake fully cool. Transfer cake to serving plate, pour remaining glaze over cake, let glaze set and then cut and serve.
