The "Best Damn Lemon Cake"

As you can probably tell, Maida Heatter is a demigoddess to me. I've never found a single recipe of hers that I didn't love, at least. This is the one that I have been making longest, and which people talk about most, and the title says it all.


THE “BEST DAMN LEMON CAKE”
from Maida Heatter’s New Book of Great Desserts

½ c blanched almonds
1½ c sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp double-acting baking powder
¾ tsp salt
4 oz unsalted butter
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs (graded large)
½ cup milk
1 oz (2 Tbsp) lemon extract
Finely grated rind of 2 extra-large or 3 medium lemons (juice will be used for glaze)

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8½” x 4½” loaf pan. Dust it with fine, dry bread crumbs, invert over a piece of paper, and tap firmly to shake out excess. Set the pan aside.

• In a food processor, grind the almond very fine. Set aside.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
• In a small, heavy saucepan over low heat (or in the microwave) melt the butter.
• Transfer butter to the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat a bit to mix.
• On low speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, beating only to mix well.
• Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating until mixed after each addition.
• Stir in the lemon extract.
• Stir in the ground almonds.
• Remove from the mixer. Stir in the grated rind.

It will be a rather thin mixture. Turn it into the prepared pan.

Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, until a cake tester carefully inserted into the center of the cake -- all the way to the bottom -- comes out just barely clean and dry. (If the pan is long and narrow the cake will bake in less time than if it is short and wide.) During baking, the cake will form a large crack or two on the top; the crack, or cracks, will remain light in color – that’s OK.

Two or 3 minutes before the cake is done, prepare the glaze.

GLAZE

1/3 c fresh lemon juice
1/3 c +2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Stir the sugar and juice in a small, heavy saucepan over moderate heat only until the sugar is just dissolved; do not boil the mixture.

When the cake is removed from the oven, let it stand for 2 or 3 minutes. Then, with a brush, brush the hot glaze very gradually over the hot cake; the glaze should not be applied quickly -- it should take about 5 minutes to apply it all.

Let cake stand in the pan until tepid, not quite completely cool. Then, gently invert it onto a rack. (If the cake sticks in the pan, cover it loosely with foil or wax paper, turn it upside down onto your right hand, tap the bottom of the pan with your left hand, and the cake will slide out.) Turn the cake right side up. When it is completely cool, wrap it in plastic wrap or foil and let stand for 12 to 24 hours before serving. If you want to serve it sooner, place the wrapped cake in the freezer for about 2 hours or in the refrigerator for about 4 hours before serving.

NOTE: For this cake, do not use a nonstick, or a black. metal, or a glass pan; it should be aluminum, preferably heavy weight. And do not double the recipe and bake it in one larger pan, unless it's a longer loaf pan: it iss better to make two or more cakes in the specified loaf pan.