our favorite lemon tea cake

my children, who are all under 10, ask for this cake consistently as their birthday cake. it is sooooo good. a dense lightly lemony cake that is just sweet enough. it is sinfully moist on the bottom as it soaks up the sugary lemon juice and has a lovely crust of sugary goodness on top. it is absolutely a perfect cake to pair with fresh whipped cream and some sort of berries, but is just as good alone.

you will need:
a bundt pan
1 cup of butter, softened, plus a little extra to butter the pan
1 3/4 cup of raw sugar with 1/4 of a cup separated from the rest
2 lemons, zested, pitted and juiced...
1 1/2 teaspoons of pure lemon extract
4 eggs
3 cups unbleached white wheat flour (i love king arthur's brand)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk

preparations:
1. butter and flour the bundt pan and preheat oven to 350 F.
2. beat the butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar together until creamy.
3. add the grated zest from the two lemons to the sugary butter. beat well.
4. add the eggs and the lemon extract to the mixture and beat thoroughly.
5. add the flour, baking soda and salt and gently fold into the butter-sugary-lemony-eggy goodness. as you stir the dry ingredients into the wet, add the milk. you may add more milk if the batter consistency is too dry, but it is intended to be a little gloppier than a box cake mix might be. it should be beaten thoroughly, but not runny.
6. spoon mixture into the bundt pan and bake for about one hour. when cake has plumped up nicely, is mildly browned and a wooden skewer can be inserted and extracted and remain clean, it is done. take it out to cool a bit.
7. while cake is baking add the remaining quarter cup of sugar to the juice of the two lemons and mix. the sugary juice will still be granular, and thats okay. when the cake is done and has cooled a little while, turn the pan over onto a serving plate and shake that baby out! then, pour the sugary juice over the top, letting the granules stay on the top to harden. the juice will run down the edges and puddle at the bottom of the plate where it will soak into the cake and make every problem in your world dissappear if not just for the moments you're eating it. :)

enjoy!!!