Bake

Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake

by:
April  5, 2021
57 Ratings
Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake
Photo by Rocky Luten
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
  1. 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.
  2. Place the lemon rind and juice in a small cup and set aside.
  3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
  4. 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.
  5. Remove from the mixer and stir in the lemon rind and juice.
  6. 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.
  7. While the cake is baking, make the glaze: Mix the juice and sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally.
  8. 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.
  9. With a pastry brush, brush the glaze over the top, sides and tube of the hot cake.
  10. Let stand until completely cool.
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Genius Recipes

Recipe by: Genius Recipes

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99 Reviews

nv114
nv114 December 13, 2020
Definitely use half a cup less sugar for the cake. For the lemon glaze heat the lemon juice with 1 star anise and add granulated sugar honey to taste
 
Deterding
Deterding July 4, 2020
This cake was phenomenal. Very moist and buttery inside, and the outside was tart and lemony!! My family loved its!
 
annunziata
annunziata June 19, 2020
I made it and I know I must have screwed up. It is after all Maida Heatter's recipe with Dorie Greenspan's blessing as well as all the other rave reviews ... it was the Worst cake I have ever made. I rechecked the recipe to see what I did wrong but I couldn't find anything. Mia colpa, mia massimma colpa! I'm going back to bed.
 
Lin
Lin June 19, 2020
Annunziata I was not that pleased with my cake either, but figured it had to be something I did with all the rave reviews. It was good but a little dry to me and not what I was expecting. As we say in the South.."Bless your Heart"! I know how you feel.
 
MacGuffin
MacGuffin July 16, 2020
It's worth another try. Mine was phenomenally yummy. I was, however, careful not to riff--I followed the recipe to the letter.
 
RavensFeast
RavensFeast June 15, 2020
What a great recipe! Put our 13 year old in charge of this one and (without much help), she nailed it. We did use 1/2 cup less sugar in the batter after reading the suggestions from other reviewers. I think it would have been fine with the original amount, but it was also delicious with a bit less. Our cake tested done at the 1 hr. mark (skewer tested clean & dry, cake was golden brown and split). It wasn't nearly as deeply golden as the image or video above, and indeed I think it could have baked another 5+ min. Nonetheless, that's all just perfectionism, because is was absolutely delightful as it was! This is a prefect picnic cake.
 
Carina D.
Carina D. May 9, 2020
I just baked this cake for Mother’s Day (tomorrow.) It turned out amazingly beautiful! I followed each step to the T and made sure to add all of the glaze. It seems like so much glaze but trust me, the cake soaks it right up! I used a classic Bundt pan, with a dark nonstick coating (similar to the Nordic Ware one in the video.) However, I took the cake out at 50 mins (followed advice of another reviewer.) The top of the cake was split and golden brown, that’s how I could tell. It slipped out of the pan with great ease! It’s a gorgeous cake and am sure it will be a hit!
 
Justine K.
Justine K. April 27, 2020
This cake is one of my favourites. I baked in a heavy metal bundt tin, so I reduced to baking time to 50 minutes. I noticed that this recipe is different to the one printed in the Genius cookbook. Is that on purpose?
 
annunziata
annunziata April 11, 2020
Can you substitute panko bread crumbs for the dried bread crumbs?
 
Isa
Isa April 11, 2020
I did, since that is what I had. But! The second time I used granulated sugar and it was SO much better! And you can still see where there isn’t enough butter. This cake is wonderful, but the entire family preferred it with the sugar coating ;)
 
Smaug
Smaug April 11, 2020
Too coarse, flour actually works perfectly well. Fine bread crumbs for coating cake pans was kind of a favorite of Mme. Heatter, but you don't really want a coating; they should be fine enough (and flavorless enough) to incorporate into the cake without being noticeable. Flour works just fine.
 
Isa
Isa March 29, 2020
This is delish. Our second one is cooling now. Like others, I used a fair bit less sugar (1.25 cups), though kept the same amount as recipe calls for in the glaze. I buttered and sugared the cake pan and both cakes have come out beautifully.
Re: timing, in my dark Bundt pan it takes anywhere from 35-45” never any longer...thank you for a new addition to my lemon cake recipes!
 
Elias H.
Elias H. February 17, 2020
Great cake, friends and family love it and I really enjoy the zing from the exterior glaze. However is anyone having any issues with bake times. The first time I made this cake I trusted my instincts and took it out at the 35 minute mark. Came out slightly dark but still great color. The second time I baked it for the full hour, the color was way too dark teetering I’m burnt. Anyone else having this issue?
 
Ellie
Ellie January 28, 2020
I made a mistake, My copy is not the 1974 edition . It is the reprint. I gave the original to a friend.
You are great to respond so fast. Love Food 52!
 
Smaug
Smaug January 28, 2020
I nearly lived in those books much of my adult life, so your comment sort of jumped out at me. The "Book of Great Desserts" was from 1974; the "New Book of Great Desserts" is a completely different book, published in 1982.
 
Ellie
Ellie January 28, 2020
I found my original Maida Heatter cook book and the recipe called for whole not buttermilk .
 
Smaug
Smaug January 28, 2020
I think you're looking at the "Best Damn Lemon Cake"- turn the page for "Lemon Buttermilk Cake #2".
 
Kathleen D.
Kathleen D. January 21, 2020
This cake is simply marvelous. I followed the recipe exactly, with one slight variation; I used the zest from 3 very large Texas Meyer lemons. That is probably more zest than the average 3 lemons. Everyone that tasted this cake wanted more!
 
Elias H.
Elias H. February 17, 2020
It’s way more zest but the cake turns out great every time! Source: I’m a Houstonian with a huge Meyer lemon tree in my yard, and they are massive!
 
Anne M.
Anne M. January 4, 2020
Just finished glazing, waiting to taste for dessert tonight.
As others have mentioned, Panko crumbs worked well, she popped right out of the pan. However, mine is very brown, not lovely golden as per pic. Baked 1 hr 5 min until tester came out clean. Too long? Used dark metal bundt.
 
Kristen M.
Kristen M. January 22, 2020
Hi Anne, I've heard that dark metal Bundts are notorious for overcooking cakes, and that reducing the oven temp by 25 degrees F is one solution. Hope that helps!
 
Justine K.
Justine K. April 27, 2020
I used a heavy metal bundt (nordic ware), and mine was done in 50 minutes.
 
Justine K.
Justine K. April 27, 2020
Great tip, Kristen. Thank you!
 
MacGuffin
MacGuffin July 16, 2020
Was it a dark one? My pans are the somewhat coarse-looking (plain aluminum) Nordic Ware commercial pans. The time shown was perfect.
 
ellen
ellen January 4, 2020
Has anyone tried this cake with milk+vinegar in place if actual buttermilk? And, come to think of it, with all that lemon juice, couldn’t you just use regular milk?
 
ellen
ellen January 4, 2020
Oops - I reposted this under Questions.
 
R W.
R W. January 2, 2020
Looking at the recipe, I saw it called for 3 Tbsp of grated lemon peel, which I thought would contribute bitterness from the white inner peel. Looking at the video, I see that the lemons are zested rather than grating the lemon peel. I assume the recipe should call for lemon zest rather than grated lemon peel. Great recipe!
 
mdelgatty
mdelgatty July 5, 2020
I've always used a fine grater to zest lemons; it's not that hard to avoid grating the pith, and it's way faster than a microplane. I usually then chop it up a bit finer to disperse the flavour better....
 
kumatank
kumatank December 30, 2019
This adapted version came out fluffy like a muffin and did not come out of the bundt mold very well. When i made the original version, it was way more dense like a pound cake. Perhaps it was the buttermilk. Going back to the original recipe.
 
Susan
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?
 
Kristen M.
Kristen M. January 22, 2020
Hi Susan, I haven't tried it but I think this cake would freeze well. If you can add the syrup fresh after thawing, it will likely taste much brighter.
 
Abdullatif S.
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.
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.
 
Janet H.
Janet H. 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
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
tastysweet October 16, 2019
Lyn, did you use a Bundt pan?
 
Lyn
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
tastysweet October 17, 2019
Thanks Lyn. Don’t do Instagram though.
I take it the time to bake is the same?