Best Damned Lemon Cake

This recipe is based on one from baking maven Maida Heatter and was published in Saveur issue No. 110. The instructions, caused an enormous challenge: "for the best results when you're making this luscious sweet cake, be sure to use a light-colored metal loaf pan; a dark-colored loaf pan will cause the cake to overbrown; glass or Pyrex loaf pans do not conduct heat as well as metal." I looked everywhere in Toronto and Montreal for a light-colored metal loaf pan. I eventually found one, serendipitously, in Ulaan Bator, Mongolia in 2010, and brought it back to Canada.

 

1 tablespoon sweet butter, plus 8 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 tsp. fine salt
1 1/3 cups plus 2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon extract
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

• Heat oven to 350°.
• Grease a loaf pan measuring 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/4" with 1 tablespoon of the butter and dust it with the bread crumbs.
• Invert and tap out excess crumbs; set aside. 
• In a food processor, grind the almonds until very fine, about 1 minute; set aside. 
• In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. 
• Put the remaining butter into a large bowl and add 1 cup of the sugar. 
• Mix with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just long enough to incorporate, about 30 seconds. 
• Add the flour mixture and milk mixture in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour. 
• Beat until mixed after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, about 3 minutes total. 
• Mix in the lemon extract. 
• With the spatula, fold in the lemon zest and ground almonds. (The mixture will be thin.) 
• Turn batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and dry, about 65 minutes. 
• Transfer the pan to a cooling rack. 

Prepare the Glaze

• Combine remaining sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. (Do not boil.) 
• Brush the glaze over the hot cake. The excess liquid may pool along the sides of the pan; it will absorb completely as it sits.
• Once the cake has absorbed all the liquid, turn it out of the pan and allow it to cool upright on a rack. 
• Once it's cool, wrap the cake with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours before serving.