Cake or cupcake, lemon

PJ Hamel’s glazed lemon Bundt cake combines lemon zest in its butter-rich crumb with a fresh lemon-juice glaze. This version takes its ring shape from a Bundt pan and offers a separate lemon icing over the finished surface.

Unsalted butter, granulated sugar and table salt are beaten until fluffy and lighter in colour. Four eggs enter one at a time, with the bowl scraped before the flour mixture is added.

All-purpose flour and baking powder are incorporated in portions alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour. The selected zest of two lemons finishes the batter before it is smoothed into a thoroughly greased Bundt pan and baked.

Fresh lemon juice and a separate portion of granulated sugar are warmed briefly until the sugar dissolves. The cake is released from its pan and this glaze is brushed over its hot top and sides repeatedly until the whole glaze batch is used.

After the cake cools completely, the optional icing combines icing sugar, a pinch of table salt and more freshly squeezed lemon juice. A barely pourable consistency allows it to be drizzled over the golden, tangy cake.