Greetings! The baking in hot weather continues…
I finally made some time to bake something. It was a combination of not planning ahead, not having a clean kitchen, needing to do other things, not getting enough sleep, and of course, the hot weather, which makes me want to stay as far away from an oven as possible!
Today I decided to finally make something with the bottle of preserved lemons I had purchased a long time ago. Yes, one can certainly preserve lemons, but the bottle of preserved lemons from Tunisia called to me to purchase it. (and then just sat in my cupboard while other ingredients got utilized!)
I thought of my bottle of preserved lemons today after going online and seeing lemon being paired quite a bit with berries and yogurt or sour cream, in cakes. And since I had all those ingredients, it thought it was time to see if I can substitute preserved lemons and use it in a cake!
I think the thing I like about this recipe is that it’s not too tart, but not overly sweet. I decided against an icing, but instead to just use a simple dusting of confectioner’s sugar, for fear of making it too sweet.
I really love how the raspberries are scattered throughout the batter, causing bursts of red when you cut a slice and look at a cross section of the cake. Ben thinks it would go great with whipped cream or ice cream, and/or coffee. I agree.
Preserved Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake (adapted from Desserts Required)
ingredients
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs, room temp.
1 preserved lemon, cored, pulp removed, minced
1 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 heaping cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
method
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Set aside baking spray with flour and butter, and a 14 cup Bundt cake pan.
Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl, and stir with a whisk to blend thoroughly. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl, until fluffy and pale. Add eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla, beating on medium until blended, and scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing, as needed. Slowly add in preserved lemon.
Alternating with the flour mixture and the sour cream and the lemon, add a little of each, starting with a 1/3 of the flour, followed by half of the lemon juice, and sour cream, blending a little with each addition, until all ingredients have been added to the batter. Before all flour has been added, add the raspberries to the flour to coat each berry, which will help it from sinking, and will help it keep its shape. After coating the raspberries, fold it into the batter carefully.
Spray your Bundt pan with baking (butter and flour) spray. Add the batter to the pan and level with a spoon or small offset spatula.
Bake on center rack in oven for about an hour and 10 minutes, or, when inserting a long wooden skewer, it comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in bundt pan on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes, then remove/invert cake on another rack.
You can either make a simple icing with confectioner’s sugar and a little lemon juice to desired consistency, or else just do what I did, which was just to dust with a little confectioner’s sugar, making sure to dust only after cake has cooled.
DAVE BAKES 
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