Liam's Lemon Cake

My friend Susan called today for a cake recipe. Her sweet babe Liam will be baptized in a couple of weeks, and she is looking for a fresh, light cake recipe for the celebration with family and friends afterward. I immediately thought of Maida Heatter's East 62nd Street Lemon Cake. Maida is truly a dessert maven, and her lemon cake has been lauded by the likes of Bill Blass and Nancy Reagan—not to mention the Knight family. Light and lemony, this recipe has become synonymous with Easter and Spring to me. Perfect for celebrating little Liam's new life in Christ. (And what says spring like Nancy Reagan's cute little suits?)

Maida Heatter's East 62nd Street Lemon Cake

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 pound (that's right, two sticks) butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk

Finely grated rind of 2 large, firm lemons

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a plain or fancy tube pan with an 11- 12-cup capacity and dust it with fine, dry bread crumbs (purchased). 

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In larger bowl of electric mixer beat the butter to soften it a bit. Add the sugar and beat for 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs individually, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth. On lowest speed, alternately add the dry ingredients in three additions and the milk in two additions, scraping the bowl with the rubber spatula as necessary and beating only until incorporated after each addition. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Stir in lemon rind. Turn the batter into prepared pan. Level top by rotating pan briskly back and forth. 

Bake for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes until a cake tester comes out dry. 

Let cake stand in the pan for about 5 minutes and then cover with a rack and invert. Remove pan, leaving the cake upside down. Place over a large piece of aluminum foil or wax paper and prepare glaze.

Glaze

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

2/3 cup sugar

The glaze should be used immediately. Stir the lemon juice and sugar and brush all over the hot cake until absorbed. 

Let cake cook completely. Use two wide spatulas or a cookie sheet to transfer it to a cake plate. Do not cut for several hours. 

Notes on the Recipe:

If you don't have breadcrumbs to coat the pan, flour will work. Shake flour into the pan, swirl around until coated, and toss out excess. Lemon juice must be freshly squeezed. That's the secret to this recipe.