May is my birthday month.  So, I thought I’d make cake.  All month. Seems reasonable right?

Let’s start with a love of mine from childhood birthdays passed: the lemon poppy seed bundt cake.  I remember watching my mom make this cake: lemon boxed cake mix+lemon pudding mix=little kid heaven.  It’s been on my mind for some time to see if I can recreate the deliciousness of this boxed pudding cake from scratch.

Well, at least the remembered deliciousness…I have a feeling that boxed cake mix is like my childhood love of pop-tarts, Kraft macaroni and cheese (with ketchup), Bubblicious gum and twinkies.  Nirvana as a kid; pretty disgusting as an adult.  Sometimes nostalgia is best left in its place.

The funny thing is that when I went looking for recipes, the first couple of pages of search hits consisted almost entirely of the  boxed-cake recipe. If anything, the recipe is a classic.  Then again, so is tater-tot casserole.

So, I pulled-out the big guns and went diving into the Cooks Illustrated archive.  And hit pay-dirt. Of course.

If you don’t know about Cooks Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen, you should.  Especially if you are just a little but of a food geek or have a thing for guys in bow-ties. The basic idea is that they take recipes, commercial food products and even kitchen gadgets and put them through the paces in search of the ultimate (you fill in the blank).  Think Consumer Reports for food.  Get it?  Okay.

So, lemon bundt cake.  Of course this lemon cake has lemon zest.  And lemon juice.  But with a twist.  In this recipe, you sort of macerate the zest and then add it to the lemon juice and let it soften for 15 minutes.

After assembling the troupes: dry ingredients, buttermilk and our lemon cocktail, butter and sugar are creamed together. Then eggs are added.

After this the buttermilk and lemon juice are combined and added in alternating turns with the dry ingredients.

And finally, the poppy seeds.  Well, at least in my recipe.  The original does not call for poppy seeds but what would lemon cake be without them?  Besides, if I’m going to be true to the nostalgia, I had to add the seeds.  You see, my mother is just a little evil. When I was a kid she told my brother and I that poppy seeds were actually dried spider eggs.  She also told us Cheetos were rusty nails and the beef and vegetable stew she made every Halloween was actually made from the flesh of fresh bodies she’d dug up at the graveyard.  And of course, we believed her.  It’s pretty amazing my brother and I escaped childhood without any significant food aversions  (well, I do fear capers but that’s a whole other story).

This batter is hearty and will fill your pan to the brim.

Out of the oven, the cake is golden and fragrant.

Once the cake was cooled, all that was left to do was ice-it and eat it.

Which is exactly what we did.

One note before I give you the recipe.  I’ll be in China for the next couple of weeks for work.  I’ve set up posts but have had to ask TD to do the actual posting.  I bring this up because I’m fairly certain he will not be able to resist the chance to personalize these posts in some way.  So, if something looks or sounds a little off, you’ll know why.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

adapted only slightly from Cooks Illustrated

• 3 lemons , zest grated and saved, then juiced for 3 tablespoons juice (see note above)
• 3cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces)
• 1teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda
• 1teaspoon table salt
• 1teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4cup low-fat buttermilk (preferably)
• 3 large eggs , at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk , at room temperature
• 18tablespoons unsalted butter (2 1/4 sticks), at room temperature
• 2cups sugar (14 ounces)
• 1-2 TBS poppy seeds

For glaze

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 C confectioner’s sugar

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour (alternatively, brush pan with mixture of 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon melted butter). Mince lemon zest to fine paste (you should have about 2 tablespoons). Combine zest and lemon juice in small bowl; set aside to soften, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Combine lemon juice mixture, vanilla, and buttermilk in medium bowl. In small bowl, gently whisk eggs and yolk to combine. In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes; scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium speed and add half of eggs, mixing until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining eggs; scrape down bowl again. Reduce to low speed; add about one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until just incorporated after each addition (about 5 seconds). Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at medium-low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold-in poppy seeds. Scrape into prepared pan.
3. Bake until top is golden brown and wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into center comes out with no crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes.
4. Cool cake in pan on wire rack set over baking sheet for 10 minutes, then invert cake directly onto rack.To glaze, mix together juice and sugar until desired consistency is reached, drizzle over cake.