East 62nd Street Lemon Cake

Your recipe calls for 325 degree oven. This should be 350 degree oven. I have her recipe in her cookbook. Please let bakers know or it will not be done in time.

Instead of bread crumbs I have always used ground pecans to dust the pan. Looks beautiful out of the pan and adds a nice crunch and flavor to the cake. My mother always did this with her lemon cake. I am looking forward to making this recipe.

Personally I would use 325 due to the density of a tube-style cake. Tube cakes can take 15-20 minutes, or longer, than a standard round cake to completely bake through. When I convert a 350 temp layer cake recipe to tube-style pan, I lower temp to 325 and check it after about 45 minutes or when I see the cake has stopped rising. The lower temp allows the outside to set slower and keeps it from over-baking and drying out as the deeper inner batter catches up, allowing entire cake to bake evenly.

This is an workhorse for me - for decades. It's even prettier in a kugelkopf mold. I really don't like excessively sweet desserts, but for some reason, I think doubling the glaze is better. Maida also specifies granulated sugar, made at the last moment, so the sugar doesn't dissolve, don't heat the lemon juice. It works. She also says to slice the cake into thin slices and make each serving 4 or 5 slices. Fanned out is nice. Poundcake really does taste better in thin slices.

To truly enhance the lemon flavor of your cake, rub the lemon zest and sugar together between your thumb and forefingers until the zest is well incorporated into the sugar. It makes a marked difference, and will even give your kitchen a nice scent. We had a bumper crop of grapefruits from our tree this year, and, though it's against the rules, substituting fresh ruby red grapefruit in place of the lemon made for a lovely cake. Tangerines (another bumper crop) did too.

According to Cooks Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen), lemon juice loses flavor when heated during baking. Lemon zest does not. So lemon zest in the cake, lemon juice in the glaze. Having made many lemon pound cakes and other lemon desserts, I agree.

The East 62nd Street Lemon Cake. Our family favorite. Try serving it with this sauce: Cook together 1 jar raspberry jam with 1 package frozen no-sugar added strawberries. Cool. Puree with a hand blender or food processor. Strain through cheese cloth or a fine strainer. Delicious.

Some readers have mentioned that "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts" instructs you to bake this cake at 350. Our recipe, the one that Craig Claiborne ran in 1970, before Ms. Heatter's book was published, indicates 325. Either will work, but if you bake at 350, start checking for doneness just before the hour mark.

The ingredients list has the lemon rind as part of the glaze, but the instructions say to add it to the cake batter,which makes more sense.

For crying out loud, is it 325 or 350?

Craig Claiborne did have it printed in the Times magazine section in 1970 along with two other recipes. Here is the link if you are interested in the original. Actually, Craig Clairborne originally wrote this up with two other cakes in the Sunday Times magazine section. It is a little different but the lemon rind is added to the batter not to the glaze. Here is the original link. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1970/08/09/357108952.html?...

My great great grandmother Emala Sargent Veale McLean, who was born in Cornwall in 1834, lived in Ontario from 1855, and died in Chatham in 1909, made this cake, as have her descendants their entire lives, including me. The very same cake, but no! lemon! glaze! which flies in the face of tradition. I might give it a whirl next time since lemon is delicious and Emala will never know. This cake freezes very well without the glaze, perhaps with it. I always have some in my freezer.

Made this alongside Cook's Illustrated lemon bundt for comparison. They are both variations on the same 1-2-3-4 recipe. This was good, but the Cook's version might be better, with its buttermilk and 3-eggs-plus-one-yolk formula. And its white powdered sugar glaze made a prettier display than this cooked glaze.

I know this is last minute but I have question. I've made this cake quite a few times, but not in years. I'd like to make it for Easter but am trying to remember id it can be made a day ahead.

This recipe is delicious and very good with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I used a bundt pan and did not have difficulty getting the cake out of the pan after it was baked. For the glaze, I used confectioners sugar. Instead of milk, I used buttermilk, which made the cake richer. This dessert was a hit with my guests!