Ingredients
- CAKE:
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup white sugar
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
- 4 large eggs
- CHOCOLATE FROSTING:
- 1/2 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
- 1-3/4 stick Butter
- 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
- 6 Tablespoons Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar
- LEMON GLAZE:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- juice of 1 small lemon
Preparation
Step 1
Before you start mixing the ingredients, prepare a sheet pan and pre-heat the oven to 325° F.
For this recipe you want to add all the dry ingredients first — flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt — in a separate bowl from the one you’ll be mixing the batter in, then whisk to combine.
Whisk carefully, flour will fly everywhere if you try to rush.
Next up, zest the lemon with a microplane and juice it with a lemon juicer.
You can do without those two tools, but Jenn swears by them. “I thought they were stupid when we got them, but I use them all the time.”
Once you measure out the lemon juice add it to the buttermilk.
Add the vanilla to the buttermilk and lemon juice, and don’t worry about how it’s getting lumpy. That’s the lemon causing the milk to curdle. It’s supposed to happen.
Finally you’re ready to start adding ingredients to the bowl you’ll be mixing in. Start with the sugar and lemon zest and mix until fragrant.
Next add the butter and mix until smooth and fluffy.
Mix in one egg at a time on low speed.
Continue mixing on low speed as you add the dry and wet ingredients, alternating three portions of dry with two portions of wet. I.e.: Dry, wet, dry, wet, dry.
Pour the batter out into the prepared sheet pan and spread evenly.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is lightly golden brown and the cake starts to pull away from the edges.
While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.
Put the cake in the fridge until the frosting is cool. (Note that the quality of the chocolate really matters. I like Ghirardelli. And make sure it’s unsweetened cocoa powder. Sweetened cocoa is more than half sugar.)
Make the lemon glaze (cook in saucepan until smooth) and drizzle it over the frosting.
Back into the fridge until everything solidifies.