Oh-So-Lemony Bundt Cake

I have never met a lemon I didn’t like. When I was in my early teens, I came up with my first food-related invention: lemony V8 juice. It was a pretty simple recipe: one part lemon juice to three parts V8, topped with a big sprinkling of pepper. That’s a lot of lemon juice, when you think about it. But it was only the beginning. I soon figured out how to make lemon bars, lemon-blueberry bread, lemon meringue, and Shaker lemon pie. That was followed by lemon curd, lemonade made with actual lemons, and then just plain lemon in my water. We go through a lot of lemon in this house. I’ll bet I drink more lemon juice than milk in any given week.

Whew! I had no idea how relieved I’d feel to get the words out there like that. “My name is Shannon Woodward. I am a lemon addict.”

This recipe has to be one of my favorite lemon fixes. I’ve had it for years and years, and don’t even know where I got the original recipe, but here’s my version with a few tweaks:

Oh-So-Lemony Bundt Cake

Cake:

• 1 box lemon cake mix
• 1 small package instant lemon pudding
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup oil
• 1 cup Squirt (you can use 7-Up or Sprite, but I like Squirt better)
• 1 TBSP real lemon juice
• the zest of one lemon

Glaze:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 a stick)
• the juice of one large lemon
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• the zest of one half lemon

Mix the cake ingredients together until well-blended. Pour into greased bundt cake and bake at 325 for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool and remove from bundt pan onto a serving platter.

If you see an ugly, less-than-perfect fragment, you owe it to your loved ones to remove it immediately. You can toss it in the garbage or, you know … eat it. For the cause.

For the glaze, just mix the ingredients together and see if you like the consistency. If you want it to be more glaze-y, add a little milk to thin it out. If you want it more frosting-y, you can leave it thick. I usually make it on the thinner side, but I just felt like mixing it up a bit for this cake.

Frost, and then stand back and admire.

Now, just to really seal the deal, sprinkle a little more zest on top.

And again, just because it’s your duty as the baker, you should take a tiny, tiny piece and check it. Perhaps your ingredients went bad somewhere between the oven and the serving platter. I think your guests (or family) will thank you.

Maybe we’d better not leave this at home. Maybe we’d better pack it up and take it to a Super Bowl party.