Name: Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: Serves 12 to 15
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: Fine, dry bread crumbs, for dusting pan; Finely grated rind of 3 large lemons (juice will be used below for Glaze); 3 tablespoons lemon juice; 2 2/3 cups (354 grams) all-purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 pound (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing pan; 2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar; 3 large eggs; 1 cup buttermilk; 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice; 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Photo by Rocky Luten

Test Kitchen-Approved

Author Notes

This light, moist, lemony cake is genius for so many reasons: It’s powerfully puckery. It’s got both more fresh lemon juice and zest than you’d expect or normally see in a recipe, and the flavor holds up under heat. It’s given even more flavor because it’s soaked—really soaked—with a lemon and sugar syrup that seeps into the cake slowly and provides moistness, a little more keepability, and a lot more lemon intensity. Adapted slightly from Maida Heatter’s New Book of Great Desserts (Knopf, 1982). —Genius Recipes

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: The Genius, Foolproof Lemon Cake Dorie Greenspan Swears By. —The Editors

Watch This Recipe

Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 1 hour 15 minutes
Serves 12 to 15

Ingredients

Fine, dry bread crumbs, for dusting pan
Finely grated rind of 3 large lemons (juice will be used below for Glaze)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 ²/₃ cups (354 grams) all-purpose flour
¹/₂ teaspoon baking soda
¹/₂ teaspoon salt
¹/₂ pound (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing pan
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Glaze
¹/₂ cup fresh lemon juice
¹/₃ cup granulated sugar

In This Recipe

Directions

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350°F. You will need a tube pan with a 10-cup capacity (that is generally 9 inches in diameter); it can be a pan with a design or a 9 x 3 1/2–inch tube pan without a design. If you use a pan with a design, butter it (even if it is nonstick) and then dust it all over with fine, dry bread crumbs. If you use the plain 9 x 3 1/2–inch tube pan, butter it, line the bottom with parchment paper cut to fit, butter the paper, and dust all over with crumbs. With either pan, tap to shake out excess crumbs over a piece of paper. Set aside.
Place the lemon rind and juice in a small cup and set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions and the buttermilk in two, beginning and ending with the dry. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, and beat only until smooth after each addition.
Remove from the mixer and stir in the lemon rind and juice.
Turn into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry. The cake will be deeply golden brown and will have begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.
While the cake is baking, make the glaze: Mix the juice and sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Then cover it with a rack and very carefully turn over the pan and the rack and place it over a large piece of foil. Remove the pan. If you have used a paper lining, peel it off now.
With a pastry brush, brush the glaze over the top, sides and tube of the hot cake.
Let stand until completely cool.

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Marlin Darlin
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Review

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64 Reviews

Susan October 16, 2019

Can you freeze this cake without anything negative. And should you freeze it before you add the syrup or should you unfreeeze and then add the syrup to the warmed up cake?

Abdullatif S. September 2, 2019

My cake is now baking, can’t wait to taste it. I’m worried about the amount of sugar this recipe is containing.

Birgit C. June 25, 2019

This cake is lovely, but needs less sugar. I used 300 grams for the batter, plus 1/3 cup for glaze. It came out just right and plenty sweet.

Marlin D. June 21, 2019

I've made this cake with great success but wondering if anyone has done it adding blueberries? If so, any time or temp changes?

Lyn August 14, 2019

Marlin, I served the cake with blueberries and raspberries on the side - with lightly sweetened whipped cream. I piled them inside the bundt cake and scattered them around the cake for presentation and had more berries on the side to supplement. The presentation was lovely, and I didn't have to worry about berries sinking or compromising the integrity of the cake structure.

tastysweet October 16, 2019

Lyn, did you use a Bundt pan?

Lyn October 16, 2019

Yes, I used a regular (not a fancy Nordicware) bundt pan. I just posted a pic on instagram @ nolalynn_ca

tastysweet October 17, 2019

Thanks Lyn. Don’t do Instagram though.
I take it the time to bake is the same?

Mm June 12, 2019

With all the rave reviews & delicious sounding recipes from Ms. Heatter, I would love to try her recipes. To my taste though it does seem like there is a lot of sugar used in them, has anyone tried cutting the sugar in half? I think I'll just go ahead and try that, I don't want to miss out on a good thing!

Smaug June 13, 2019

I've made any number of her recipes over the years; the sugar content is pretty typical for published recipes- too much for me; I routinely cut it by 1/3. This naturally isn't without effect; moisture content of cakes and cookies will be somewhat effected, but not, in my experience, to a degree that I would worry about. I'm not a big believer in uniformity or in exactly duplicating someone else's results (which you can't do anyway). Of course there are exceptions- things like crumble toppings and frostings where sugar is a major part of the structure can't really be changed much.

Mm June 13, 2019

This is very helpful Smaug, thank you for replying!

jan June 14, 2019

I made the cake several times with powdered Dextrose instead of sugar. The cake was not sweet but it was otherwise perfect. I wanted a savoury cake to eat with avocado spread...unusual but good if you can get your head around it.

Diana P. June 25, 2019

I have made it at least twice so far and have always cut the sugar by half. To my taste this is sweet enough and I have a sweet tooth :)

jpriddy May 8, 2019

I love Maida Heatter!

Jean-Claude May 1, 2019

I wasn't sure what to use for "fine, dry bread crumbs, for dusting pan", so I used Kikkoman Japanese style panko which I ground in a mortar and pestle to a very fine consistency. It worked perfectly in my bundt pan. Note to the recipe writer: I really appreciate it that you list the mass of the flour, etc. and that you put it in grams. In my recipes I put almost everything in grams, even liquid ingredients.

Smaug June 14, 2019

Unless you're using a balance scale you're measuring weight, not mass.

Jean-Claude June 14, 2019

Smaug, you are correct. However, we are fortunate that there are no significant gravitational abnormalities on earth. This means that for the precision needed in cooking, I can pretty much interchange weight and mass ;-) Glad to see that there are other scientists who are cooking!!

Smaug June 14, 2019

I don't suppose a lot of baking gets done atop Everest or in the Dead Sea, and tidal effects on a bowl of soup are generally within acceptable margins of error, so you're probably OK. However, given the intrinsic inaccuracies of human language I think it's worth some effort to avoid exacerbating them. Dirty little secret- I, like hundred of years worth of bakers before me- including Maida Heatter- have always done just fine with measuring cups. Why people think metric measures are more accurate than Imperial continues to baffle me.

Paul G. July 31, 2019

Metric (what I use) has no inherently greater accuracy than imperial measurements of course, but are easier for an international audience and MIGHT lead to more precision (125 grams is somewhat more friendly to subdivide than 4-1/4 ounces). OTOH, weighing is indisputably more accurate/replicable than different volume methodologies not to mention humidity. Can measuring cups work? Of course they can. So can wringer washers and outhouses, though I prefer more modern approaches where available.

Smaug July 31, 2019

I seem to have become the anti scale guy here; not sure why, as I have three scales in my kitchen and use them every day, but I do think people are accepting some pretty dubious generalizations about them. So off we go- grams etc. as used in the sciences are measures of mass, so are in fact more accurate, but not in the kitchen. It's true that metric measurements make for easier calculations in base 10 arithmetic; on the other hand, the machines that most people depend on for calculations operate in base two, so why not give them a break? I don't bake much in summer but here's what happened with the last recipe I made, for bourbon butterscotch ice cream. The first ingredient was dark brown sugar- I'd had mine for long enough that it was noticeably drier than when new, which would throw off the weight some, but anyway, only had 65 of the 150 grams. When I got back from the store, for some reason this was down to 31 grams. I could tell (by volume) that that was off, but for some reason I had to weigh it 3 times to get it back to 65. My faithful Oxo scale had never done anything like that before, and I don't know why it did this time, but it brings up the question, do you have any way of checking your scale's accuracy, and do you actually do so? Onward- milk and cream- no reason I can see to weigh these, though it might be convenient if working on a large scale. Different fat content of creams would affect their specific gravity some, but probably not a worry. Next, 2 tsp. (10g) butter- I weighed this, but could as easily have eyeballed it- not a critical amount. After that egg yolks- once again, if you're working large scale it would be more accurate to do these by either volume or weight, but as a home cook, I'm not going to try to make up 1/7 of a yolk- just used the 5. Corn syrup 1/4 c- could have done this either way- I like weight when convenient because of the amount that sticks to a cup, but no big deal. The other ingredients, salt and cornstarch, were in small quantities; no sense using a scale that rounds off to a gram for quantities of a few grams. All in all, this was pretty typical- weighing has some advantage in some situations, but isn't the sort of panacea it gets painted as.

MacGuffin August 25, 2019

Are you in the UK? I think it's U.S. Standard here and Imperial in the UK. Volume and weight aren't synonymous.

MacGuffin August 25, 2019

ETA: I should have clarified. U.S. weight and volume aren't synonymous with their Imperial counterparts.

Peggy April 28, 2019

I've made this wonderfully pucker cake four times already and it's a success each time. I even bought the same Nordicware bundt pan to bake it since it's a beauty. For the glaze, I've increased to using the juice of four lemons instead of three, and I brush the bottom of the cake with the glaze before turning it out of the bundt pan onto a plate to give it more flavor.

Misty C. April 28, 2019

I made this cake today and it was amazing! I just had to divide the recipe in half as it was only for me and my husband. There are a couple of things that I slightly changed from the recipe (i.e. size of pans (no tube or bundt pan at home), shorter baking time), but overall, it turned out pretty well. Thanks for sharing the recipe on the site! I will definitely make this again in the future.

bobbe May 9, 2019

Freezing extra cake makes for a divine experience for another night, breakfast, or afternoon snack . . . just saying.

hilbabes August 29, 2019

thanks for your down-sizing. I need to cook as a couple too. What size pan did you use? and what baking time worked?

Yvette April 23, 2019

Fantastic cake - made it for Easter and served it with sweetened whipped cream and raspberries. Will definitely make this one again. Even though I over-baked it (60 mins was too long for my wonky oven) the crumb was still beautiful. It was too tart for my kids but I noticed that on day 2 the tartness wasn't as apparent. My husband and I neglected to mention this to the kids and happily finished off the cake ourselves.

Jennifer C. April 23, 2019

I love lemon cake and have tried several kinds, but this one literally takes the cake. I had issues getting out of the pan, but that was on me. It is so tart, not overly sweet and stayed moist over a couple days. this will be my new go to.

Stephanie April 22, 2019

I have a lemon tree in my backyard and I am always looking for wonderful recipes that use lemons. This was a delight to make and a wonderful treat to eat. It is good straight or with strawberries and cream. I will definitely be making this recipe again. Thank you!

Smaug April 22, 2019

You would do well to look into Mme. Heatter's books, which have a number of excellent lemon recipes. The "New Book of Great Desserts" particularly favored fruit based recipes. She is (or was) based in Florida, so there are tons of orange recipes, too.

MB July 14, 2019

Jealous.

hilbabes August 29, 2019

Great news! I am in Central California with all kinds of fruits and citrus growing around me, including strawberries picked every morning just down the lane. I can't wait to try the book. Thanks for all the info.

Smaug August 30, 2019

Have fun with it- two personal favorites I can recommend- Kathy's Cranberry Loaf (I usually make this around Thanksgiving), which is saturated with an orange glaze, and the Florida Cream Cheese pie, which I make with tangerines rather than oranges. As they say at Herbies Hiawatha Lodge, "Nothin' beats fun".

mudd August 31, 2019

Maida died very recently at 103 years old!

Smaug August 31, 2019

There was a small article on F52- not a very good one, I thought. and I don't think it had her name in the title so may not be searchable.

Eric K. September 1, 2019

It's the first result when you type in her name: https://food52.com/blog/24242-maida-heatter-dies

Vanessa P. April 22, 2019

The glaze didn't turn in to a glaze for me at all. Was there something I missed? I ended up adding confectioners sugar to thicken it up but thats a lot of sugar.

Lin April 22, 2019

Vanessa it is not really suppose to be a glaze. It just soaks into the cake to for more lemon taste.

Ella July 30, 2019

Hello vanessa, what you describe is absolutely normal... it's not really supposed to become thick at all. It should be more of a thinned syrup that you carefully let seep in to your cake by slowly brushing it on. It will give your cake an extra layer of flavour and moistness !

AmandaTN April 21, 2019

Love this recipe! I made this cake for Easter and it was fantastic. I used a bundt pan and baked it for 55 minutes instead of an hour, based on some of the comments others left.

Sammy April 21, 2019

By the way, I made this in the Anniversary Bundt Pan by NordicWare using the Genius suggestion of butter and breadcrumbs - truly slipped out of the pan after cooling 5 minutes.

Smaug April 23, 2019

Mme. Heatter uses butter and breadcrumbs for nearly all of her cakes- I often don't have unflavored breadcrumbs and substitute flour, which works fine- the breadcrumbs is a personal thing of hers.

Sammy April 21, 2019

I made this for Easter after reading the reviews. I cut the sugar in half - to one cup - and reduced the sugar in the glaze to 1/4 as suggested. It is very delicious. I always cut the sugar and was delighted to have done so again. I accidentally picked up Reduced Fat Buttermilk and can report it is still delicious. Thank you Dorie, Maida and Food 52.

Lin April 19, 2019

I want to make this cake for Eater to take to a friend and want to make it a day ahead. Can you please tell me the best way to store it?

Rose H. April 16, 2019

Great recipe! Watched Dorie make this cake on youtube and had to make it myself! I whisked the batter by hand and it turned out wonderful! The only thing i would change is the glaze. Instead of 1/3 cup of sugar I would do 1/4 cup next time, other than that .. delicious, moist and very giftable!

Diana P. April 16, 2019

I have already made it twice, people (including me) just can't have enough of it. One thing though - I decided to use half of the indicated amount of sugar, and I swear the cake doesn't need to be sweeter. 400 grams is way too much in my opinion.

drbabs April 15, 2019

What a great recipe. I have owned his cookbook since it was printed, and I love lemon, so I’m shocked that I had never made it before. It is awesome. The cake has a great consistency, and the soak right after it comes out of the oven magnifies the lemon flavor. And now I know what is meant by a “keeping cake-“ the part that I wrapped up to serve 2 days later was even more delicious than it was on the first day. Thank you, Kristen, for finding this.