Make a Cake

“Cakes are special. Every birthday, every celebration ends with something sweet, a cake, and people remember. It’s all about memories.”

Buddy Valastro

Today I bake my first cake; The Ultimate Lemon Bundt Cake to be exact. While I do know how to bake – I’ve even made chocolate chip cookies on occasion – I’ve never made a proper cake before.

I knew I wanted to make something lemony and I’ve always found bundt cakes attractive; so when I came across The Ultimate Lemon Bundt Cake recipe it seemed perfect. The fact that the recipe comes with a series of photos showing all of the steps (replete with sassy captions) is an added bonus.

Once I have all the ingredients lined up on the counter Emrys takes the heavy KitchenAid mixer down off the shelf and sets it up. It feels good to be utilizing this amazing wedding gift.

The process of zesting and juicing the lemons fills the kitchen with the most delicious smell. I could be content with that smell alone; but I think Emrys is hoping for an actual cake so I continue to the next step.

After mixing the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another, it’s time to start mixing 1/3 of this with 1/2 of that at varying speeds for various lengths of time. I find myself obsessively repeating the instructions aloud until they start to make sense to me. Emrys appears unconcerned by my animated narration so I carry on talking myself through each step.

When I add the flour mixture into the wet and turn on the mixer I discover the importance of that little plastic guard that fits over the top of the bowl. Apparently if you want your ingredients to stay in the bowl you should put that on. Luckily I manage to slap it on pretty quickly and don’t lose too much of my mix; although the counter is now covered in a fine film of flour and sugar.

Scraping the batter into the pan, I smooth it down and place the pan in the preheated oven. Fifty minutes later the house smells delicious and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, signalling it’s ready.

I let it cool for ten minutes before flipping it out of its pan and applying the first round of the icing sugar/buttermilk/lemon juice glaze. An hour later I give the cake its final round of glazing and it’s ready for a photo shoot – because hey, who knows when I’ll bake again?

Photo shoot complete, Emrys cuts us a slice to taste. The cake is lemony and moist in my mouth and pretty damn delicious. I’m pleased and dreaming up a rum bundt cake for Christmas. Let’s make memories!