Meyer Lemon Bliss Cake + 5 year blogiversary

Five years ago, I started writing a food/recipe blog. It was really meant to be an online space for me to keep my favorite recipes, and for me to challenge myself more in the kitchen, since my kitchen skills = a mean scrambled egg or boxed macaroni and cheese. I never really thought anyone would read it, besides me.

Five years later, I feel like I’m a part of a wonderful blogging community. I’m so thankful for every comment, email and pin from y’all. I’ve made some amazing friends through blogging, and I’ve learned to become a lot more comfortable in my cooking and baking. So, from the bottom of my heart–thank you for everything.

I thought I would make an elaborate cake for this post, but sometimes simple is best. I made this cake on a whim when my husband’s coworkers offered him some meyer lemons from their tree. I figured I should bake his coworker (and the office) something as a “thank you” featuring the lemons, and I came across this recipe on Food Librarian’s blog. In case you didn’t know, Mary’s blog is THE blog for bundt cakes (at least in my opinion). Her “I like Big Bundts” feature is truly awesome, and I always find myself going to her blog first to find a bundt cake recipe. 🙂

Now personally, I do not like lemon desserts. I love lemonade, love lemons in savory dishes, but for some reason, lemon desserts just aren’t appetizing to me. However, my husband’s fruit preference in desserts is lemon (along with pineapple…it’s probably a tie between the two actually). After putting the glaze on this cake, my husband was definitely eager to give this cake a taste for me. He told me this was probably one of the best cakes I’ve ever made, in his opinion. He loved how moist and flavorful it was…there’s no shortage of lemon flavor in this cake! He absolutely loved it, as did his coworkers.

Meyer Lemon Bliss Cake
Source: originally from King Arthur Flour, found on Food Librarian

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• finely grated rind of 2 meyer lemons

For the glaze:

• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your bundt pan by spraying the inside with baking spray, making sure to get the spray in every nook and cranny (I use a pastry brush for this).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and salt together for about 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, and add the eggs in one at a time, thoroughly mixing the batter well after each addition. Scrape down the bowl once again, and add the baking powder.
3. With the mixer on low, alternatively add the flour and milk to the mixer, starting and ending with an addition of flour. Using a spatula, stir in the lemon rind.
4. Add the batter to the prepared bundt pan, and spread the batter around the pan, until even and smooth.
5. Bake the cake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. While the cake is baking, make your glaze by mixing together the lemon juice and sugar. Set this aside.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then place a cooling rack over the cake pan and invert the cake into the cooling rack. Using a toothpick, gently poke the hot cake to prepare it for the glaze. Stir the glaze again to combine, and using a pastry brush, just brush the glaze all over the cake. Allow the glaze to sink in a bit, and brush it once again. Repeat this method until all of the glaze is used. Allow the cake to fully cool before slicing. Enjoy!