Tremendous Limoncello Cake
Prep
20m
Cook
45m
Total
65m
Bigly says
Pay attention. Limoncello cake. TREMENDOUS limoncello cake. The most tremendous cake ever drenched in lemon liqueur by a human being — and many cakes have been drenched in lemon liqueur, more than you'd think, the Italians do this on Sundays, every single Sunday, the whole country smells like a lemon grove on fire and I mean that as the highest compliment — but THIS cake, the one we're doing right now, beats every single one. Every one. It's a massacre. It's a CITRUS MASSACRE.
An old Italian woman cornered me once — Amalfi Coast, lemon trees everywhere, my shirt smelling like a candle aisle — and she made me promise to do the cake THIS way and no other way. She held my wrist when she said it. Tough woman. The kind of grandmother who could end a wedding with one look. She is the reason this cake exists in this kitchen, and the neighbor who taught her lived to be 102 — could be a coincidence, probably not — so we listen, we do what she said, we don't get cute. Big strong men, tough guys, men who pretend they don't like dessert because of something sad they read in a magazine, they come up and say, 'Bigly, the limoncello cake. I had to sit down.' I just nod. The cake unlocks things in a person, things that have been locked since middle school, and it sets them FREE.
The secret is the syrup. You poke the cake. You poke it all over with a skewer like you mean it — like you have feelings about it, because you should — and then you POUR the warm limoncello syrup over the top and it soaks in, every drop, every single drop. The cake DRINKS the syrup. The cake is THIRSTY. That is how you get a cake that tastes like sunshine wearing a tuxedo. Nobody disputes this.
Ingredients
- 2 cupsall-purpose flour
- 2 tspbaking powder
- 1/2 tspkosher salt
- 3/4 cup (12 tbsp)unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cupsgranulated sugar
- 3large eggs, room temperature
- 3 tbsplemon zest, finely grated(from about 3 lemons, fresh, do not buy zest in a jar, that is not a real thing)
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 1/2 cupwhole milk
- 2 tbspfresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cuplimoncello (for the syrup)
- 1/3 cupgranulated sugar (for the syrup)
- 1/4 cupfresh lemon juice (for the syrup)
- 1 cuppowdered sugar (for glaze)
- 2-3 tbsplimoncello (for glaze)
Steps
- 1
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan or 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment.
- 2
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- 3
In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high for 3-4 minutes until pale and fluffy.
- 4
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla.
- 5
Whisk the milk and 2 tbsp lemon juice together in a small bowl.
- 6
With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture (start and end with flour). Mix just until combined — don't overbeat.
- 7
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs and the top is golden.
- 8
While the cake bakes, make the syrup: combine 1/2 cup limoncello, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil.
- 9
When the cake comes out of the oven, leave it in the pan and immediately poke it all over with a thin skewer or toothpick, going all the way to the bottom.
- 10
Slowly spoon the warm limoncello syrup over the hot cake, letting it soak in between additions. Use all of it.
- 11
Cool the cake in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
- 12
Whisk the powdered sugar with 2-3 tbsp limoncello until you have a thick but pourable glaze. Drizzle over the cooled cake. Let the glaze set 10 minutes before slicing.
One more thing
Serve this with a small glass of cold limoncello on the side and you have officially upgraded from 'someone who makes dessert' to 'someone who makes an EXPERIENCE.' Big difference. Huge. People will text you about this cake. They will text you weeks later. 'Bigly, the cake.' That's all the text will say. And you'll know. You'll know. Now go eat.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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