Lemon Sponge Bundt with Coconut Frosting

Obviously, I’ve been wanting to get a lot of use out of my gorgeous bundt pan that Charlie got me for our anniversary. This weekend was Memorial Day, and we had a BBQ with a bunch of guests. The ten-cup capacity that’s usually far too much for us was gone in a matter of minutes.

I’ve never made a sponge cake before. It could have stood to be a bit spongier, but I expected this because of the recipe I used. As was explained the Joy of Baking website, most sponge cakes either get their texture and moisture from extra sugar or a soaking syrup. Since I don’t like extremely sweet things, the first option was out. Since we had limited ingredients and the frosting was a last minute addition, I didn’t plan for a soaking syrup, either. So, I used a recipe that had slightly different ingredients than what most of the sponge recipes I found called for.

The original recipe is here, though, as usual, I made a few changes. My recipe is below. For the top, my friend Bo whipped up this recipe, cut in half, also with a few changes explained below.

Lemon Sponge Cake

Ingredients (Cake)

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 cups evaporated cane sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup cold water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
7 eggs, separated
Juice of two lemons
Grated zest of 2 lemons
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions (Cake)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease two 9 inch round cake pans or one 10-inch tube pan and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter, egg yolks, 3/4 cup cold water, lemon juice and zest and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes; set aside.

In a separate large bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites until completely blended. DO NOT stir or beat the mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 to 60, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen sides gently and invert cake onto a rack to cool.

Wait until cake has cooled completely to frost.

Ingredients (Frosting)

*Note: If making a layer cake, you’ll want to double this back to the original yield.

1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. flour
1/2 cup of coconut, plus more for garnish
One handful of your choice of berries, trimmed (optional)

Directions (Frosting)
In small saucepan cook the milk and flour until thick and smooth. Stir with wooden spoon constantly. Set aside to cool. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together using electric mixer. Beat well until no longer grainy. Add cooked flour mixture. Beat until consistency of whipped cream. Add vanilla and stir. Add 1/2 cup coconut and stir, reserving some for garnish. Spread on cooled cake. Top with more coconut and berries, if desired.

Counting Cups Cake (Orange Poppy Cardamom)

Our fruit bowl is overflowing with oranges this week, and we all know what that means… Anytime it looks like a fruit is going to spoil because we didn’t get to eat it, I’ll throw it into some kind of bread or cake. Today, I couldn’t find a recipe that matched what I wanted to make (sure, there were some, but they required ingredients I didn’t have or ratios that didn’t sound appealing).

I knew I wanted to use some of the cardamom I had left over from my clementine cookies of a few months ago, so this recipe is extremely loosely based off of this recipe, but really, not at all.

I also adapted it for my bundt pan instead of a loaf pan, and had to do a bit of cup counting to figure out how much stuff I’d need to fill my 10-cup bundt. I was really close… but forgot to account for the super fluff of baking powder, which seems to be even more fluffy in citrus recipes.

Anyway, Charlie loves this muffin-textured cake, and if you don’t have cardamom or poppy, it would probably still be awesome.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
6 tablespoons shortening
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1.5 tablespoon baking powder
1.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon ground cardamom
1.5 tsp vanilla I think I’d omit this next time. It overpowers the cardamom. Insert back in if you don’t have cardamom.
Zest and juice from 2 medium oranges (that is, about 3/4 cup juice and maybe 2 tablespoons of zest)
2 tablespoons poppy seeds (I used only one because that’s what I had, but it could probably have had a few more, texturally)

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients, that is, the flour, cardamom, salt, and baking powder. In a separate large mixing bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time, beat in the eggs, milk, and orange juice.

FYI, You’re mixing citrus and milk: It might curdle! Don’t freak out! Lots of cake and muffin recipes call for buttermilk. And when you don’t have buttermilk, they tell you to substitute by curdling some milk with lemon or vinegar. It might look gross for a minute, but just keep stirring it all back together, and once it’s smooth, carry on.

Beat on low speed for 30 seconds; beat on high for 3 minutes, or give it some good ol’ elbow grease. Stir in orange zest, then poppy seeds.

This spilled just a bit out of my 10 cup bundt pan, which I baked at 325 on the lower rack for about an hour, since that’s what my bundt pan usually calls for. Make sure you grease your pan well, since this is the first recipe that stuck in my bundt pan, though, it could easily have been my fault, as I was baking around a refrigerator repair. I imagine that you could make some awesome muffins from this, too, probably at 350 for around 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.