Remember the gorgeous Pepe Saya buttermilk?
It was brilliant in this lemon and buttermilk cake. Adapted (only very slightly) from a prize winning CWA recipe, I’ve been baking this easy treat for years. If you don’t have buttermilk, substitute regular milk with a tablespoon of lime juice.
- 250g (1 cup) unsalted butter
- the grated rind of one lemon
- 220g (1 cup caster sugar)
- 3 large (59g) free range eggs, separated
- 300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
- 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
- 100g icing sugar mixture (confectioner’s sugar)
- lemon juice
1. Spray a cast aluminium bundt tin with vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 150C (300F) with fan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon rind. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3. Beat in the sifted flour and buttermilk alternately until combined.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stir a large spoonful into the batter to loosen it, then carefully fold the remaining egg white in, being careful not to knock all the air out of the mixture.
5. Scoop the batter into the prepared tin and bake for about an hour, until a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean and free of any uncooked batter. Rest the cake for ten minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. In a small bowl, sift the icing sugar mixture, then add enough lemon juice to create a thick but pourable icing. Drizzle decoratively over the top of the cooled cake.
Pop your feet up, and enjoy with a hot cup of tea!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
My favorite cake combo. Lemon and buttermilk with a decided geeky edge. Fantastic!
Connie, I’m surprised how different the “real” buttermilk was from the commercial version – both are delicious in this cake, but it was nice to have fresh buttermilk to play with! :)
Gorgeous. An excuse to get out my Bundt tin soon.
Sally, it works well in the bundt – the original recipe was baked in an 8″ round tin, which I’m sure would have been lovely, but not nearly as pretty!
What a lovely cake! I just bought a bag of self rising flour for a recipe and was wondering what to do with it, as my recipe used only a little bit of the bag
this sounds perfect! I am getting a bit more confident about the “cream butter with sugar”, as recently I baked a cake using this technique and it did not turn into a hockey puck. There’s hope, I suppose… :-)
That looks awesome!
Thanks Tandy! :)
Sally, I just beat the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy – I know you’re supposed to beat until you can’t feel grains of sugar anymore, but I’ve never been able to do that (maybe I lack patience!), and the cakes still seem to turn out ok!
Wow another beautiful cake. You are obviously very good at them!!
Thanks Glenda! It helps to have all the right kit. :D
Love it! Lemon cake is one of my favourite things, perfect with a cup of tea :-)
Nicole, it keeps really well too, so we had a week of tea and cake! :)
real butter milk, this is a great cake, i love the dribbled icing.. c
Celi, I’m sure you must have lots of real buttermilk to use as well! :)
What a Beautiful Cake & Simple too! Thanks for sharing – Have a Great One:)
Thanks Renee! Hope you have a fun weekend!
Celia, as you know I am very fond of Pepe and his products. I can only imagine the taste of this beautiful cake! It looks mouthwatering. Thank you for sharing the recipe, lovely.
Thanks Lizzy! We’ve discovered the Pepe Saya factory is quite close by, so we get to pick up all sorts of goodies directly from the source these days! :)
I love buttermilk in recipes- it gives that extra lift and offers such a moist crumb.
Of course I don’t have Pepe Saya buttermilk- but I will try this with ours. :)
Heidi, this cake is pretty versatile, I’ve made it with soured milk before as well! Hope you like it!
Your cake looks stunning, Celia. And that’s such a good tip about how to make your own buttermilk – I’ll remember that especially as buttermilk seems to be coming less available. And doesn’t buttermilk give a lovely moist texture to a cake! xx
Charlie, thank you – when I buy commercial buttermilk, I freeze it – it keeps well in the freezer for ages, and I usually only use half a carton at a time!
I’m coming over to your kitchen!
Ring first, and I’ll put the kettle on! :)
What a lovely light cake Celia! The Tang from the buttermilk and the Lemon would certainly go well with my Cup of Earl Grey indeed. Perfect for morning tea…is 7am too early for morning tea though?
Thanks Becca! Never too early for morning tea, love! :)
This looks so delicious and light! I love anything I can add lemon (or lime too).
Clare, this was originally written for limes, but we have a lemon tree now – we only get a few lemons a year, but it’s so nice to be able to use our own!
Gorgeous cake, the sponge has a cracking colour – good eggs!
Thanks Nick! The egg yolks always make everything so yellow! :)
Lovely! The words cake and lemon in the same sentence sing to me!!
Amanda, cake + lemon = mellow + yellow. :D
Yes another reason I need to add bundt tin to my Christmas list. I thought I was being experimental adding lime juice instead of lemon to make buttermilk the other day. I guess it wasn’t so out there.
Those eggs make it so beautifully yellow!
Darling, you don’t have a bundt tin? Will, email me, and I’ll send you a looong list of what Claire “needs”. :D
The colour of the cut slice alone just to look at makes me feel sunny inside and given the dreary weather anything sunshiny is welcome :)
Thanks ED! It was a lovely golden colour – our chookie eggs always have such golden yolks!
Hi Celia, you would be pleased to know you inspired me to buy a castle bundt cake pan for a friend with two little people………she fell in love instantly and can’t wait to bake in it………..just hope it comes out ok with all those turrets
Elaine, I’ve never been game to buy the castle bundt for that reason, but I’ve seen some amazing cakes made with it! The bundt tins are usually pretty good – do tell your friend that she needs to drop the temp a little when baking, as the cast aluminium makes the cakes very dark otherwise.
Dear Celia,
I am getting more curious about the Pepe Saya products especially the butter to go with fresh bread since I hardly bake except for savoury stuff like curry puffs and chicken wings :)
Chopinand, we use the Pepe Saya butter for spreading only – at $7.50/250g (factory price), it’s too expensive for baking with. But as a spread, it lasts us quite a long time in the fridge!
This is such a pretty cake, such a pretty shape and then all lemony drizzly over top. I’m seeing so many cakes lately… this one turned out so beautiful!
Barb, thank you! I can’t really take the credit – almost all cakes in the bundt tins turn out pretty! :)
more proof i do not make enough lemon cakes. must get cracking (and zesting and juicing) – thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks E! Hope you like this one! :)
Lovely cake , one of my favourites. lemon cakes are always a pleasure especially with this beautiful buttermilk. Hope all is well x
Thanks darling, all good. It was fun to have the buttermilk to play with – did you know the Pepe Saya factory is just behind Ikea in Tempe? :)
Hi Celia,
What a divine cake! Afternoon tea in your house must be a treat.
Hi Christine! Thank you – I always imagined afternoon tea would be an elegant affair where we’d sit around with splayds and fine china. Instead I have wolves who just cut huge chunks off any cake as soon as it cools. They always leave some for me though! :)
I knew that you’d do something delicious with it! ;)
Thanks darling! It was a lovely product!
Buttermilk cake sounds yum! I only buy buttermilk about twice a year and then it’s buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk chicken and buttermilk dressing trying to use it up. :-)
Tonight I made a bread pudding. It was pretty good but I’d love to see your recipe for one. It’s the hub’s fav.
Hugs, Maz
Maz, buttermilk freezes well (at least the commercial stuff does, I’ve not tried it with the fresh version) and keeps for ages. Here’s my bread and butter pudding recipe – haven’t made it for ages!
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/05/26/bread-and-butter-pudding/
I froze fresh buttermilk with no problems.
This looks delicious, Celia. Love the icing pooling along the bottom of the sides, just begging for a finger to taste it. :)
Thanks John – I did scrape out the icing bowl with my finger! :)
It must be amazing with such quality buttermilk.
BTW, look almost up to the ratios of a good old pound cake. Love the posts as always,
Craig
Thanks Craig! The buttermilk was a great find!
Yum! I was looking for a treat for tomorrow and this will be it.
Enjoy Jo! Oh, and comfrey and arrowroot are all potted up, thanks again! :)
Cake out of the oven and definitely yum but… I don’t have a bundt pan so used 2 loaf tins instead. In a brain snap moment I decided that seeing as you can’t line a bundt pan I wouldn’t need to line the loaf pan. I’m now eating the bottom half of the cake from the pan with a fork (still very good). Fortunately the second tin was non-stick and I managed to turn it out. Have you seen the bundt pans that pop up occasionally in Aldi and if so, what do you think of the quality?
A big fat YUM from me. That looks beautiful. Could you post me a slice please?
Hehe…I’d love to, but it’s all gone! :)
Oh Celia, save me a slice please. What a perfect afternoon this lovely cake would make with a nice cup of tea.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, it really was nice. Wish I could have shared it with you! xx
You have the life…God Bless..Will keep this recipe…sounds lovely…
Thanks Norma! Yes, God really does bless us! :)
As i have got my ‘cake light’ on green at the moment I think I might do this one, do you think a thin yoghurt would work as a good sub for buttermilk? We love lemon cake :) Yours looks scrumdelish !
I think yoghurt thinned with milk would probably make a great substitute! I love yoghurt cakes too.. :)
Your cake looks just Fabuliscious!!! I love buttermilk too!
Thanks Sophie! Have a great weekend!
Your cake has such a pretty yellow color. Is it from yolks of the free range chicken?
I was thinking about you Celia when a friend in London told me of a cake she is sharing. . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/nov/30/a-friendship-cake-called-herman
That’s positively a health food! It must be good for one – but i suspect trouble would arrive in the form of lack of control. Celia you will make the best grandmama – chocolate cane toads would have to be on the skills list of champion grandma – however I tried my grandson on ‘blood and guts’ potatoes ( baked, scooped, mashed with a trail of tomato sauce and restuffed) and ‘deadman’s fingers’ (little sausages) and I think I’ve scarred him for life!
Celia, what a gorgeous cake. I make butter frequently in my thermomix but I rarely get a cup of it. I’ll have to double the butter or find Pepe Saya. I want a piece of this cake. :)
[…] some buttermilk as well to keep them nice and moist. Maybe I’ll make some of Celia’s lemon and buttermilk cake […]
Yummy! And I just so happen to have all of these ingredients on hand!
IMK is up too. Have a great weekend!!!
Two of my favorite ingredients. This looks fantastic!