Baking is often a mix-mashup creative activity in my kitchen. I rarely follow a recipe as it is. Rather, I gather elements of 2 or 3 recipes that appeal and synthesize them into something a little new. For this one, my building blocks were The Baking Bird’s Old Fashioned St. Germain Lemon Bundt Cake and Rose Levy Berenbaum’s Country Buttermilk Cake from The Cake Bible.

This cake has me dreaming up a whole category of Boozy Bundtcakes.

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CAKE INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened

2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

3 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1/2 cup St. Germain liqueur

2 tablespoons lemon zest

4-6 tablespoons lemon juice.

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GLAZE INGREDIENTS

¼ cup unsalted butter

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons St. Germain liqueur

1 scant tablespoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

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CAKE INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch bundt pan with oil or butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy and pale (1-2 minutes).

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Wet ingredients: Into a small bowl, measure the St. Germain and buttermilk.

Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in at least 3 separate additions, alternating with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat on medium high for one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add lemon juice and  zest and beat another 20 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl and make sure all is incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top with a spatula. Bake the cake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Center in a bundtcake is the mid-point between the outside of the pan and the inner circle.) This is a pale cake that should be just lightly browned on its ridges.

Transfer the cake in the pan to a wire rack. Place a wet towel over the cake and let cool for at least 10 minutes. The moisture from the towel will steam the cake just a bit, helping it to release from the pan.

GLAZE INSTRUCTIONS

Melt the butter in one of two ways: either in a small glass ramekin for about 30 seconds in the microwave, or in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Into a medium bowl, pour the melted butter and sift the confectioner’s sugar. Stir to combine. Add the  St. Germain, lemon juice and zest, and stir until it is uniformly smooth.

Invert cake onto your serving platter or cake stand and spoon the glaze over the cake.

Note: If the cake is still a bit warm when you glaze it, you’ll wind up with a delicious but unsightly pool of glaze on the serving plate. The glaze that sticks to the cake will become transparent and develop that delicate crackle that you might find on a glazed donut. I love this, but if you want a more frosted cake, make sure the cake is totally cooled before you glaze it. As there is a lot of moisture in this cake, cooling may take an hour or so.