Gourmet Preserved Lemon Bundt Cake with Meringue Shards

Key Ingredients You’ll Need

• All-purpose flour has a medium amount of gluten, just enough to add the structure this large cake needs without being tough or chewy.
• Unsalted butter adds structure, flavour, and richness to the cake. Unsalted butter is best, as it allows you complete control over the salt content of the cake. You can use salted butter instead if you prefer, but reduce or leave out the salt called for in the recipe.
• Lemons provide a pop of fresh citrus flavour in both the cake and glaze. You’ll use both the zest and juice.
• Eggs provide lift and structure to the cake, and egg whites are used to make the meringue shards. Use large eggs.
• Vanilla extract adds some warmth to round out the bright lemon flavours in the cake. Use real vanilla extract if you can, but artificial vanilla will do just fine in a strongly-flavoured cake like this.
• Sour cream adds moisture and richness, and helps make the cake soft and tender.
• Preserved lemons add a deeply complex almost savoury lemon flavour to the cake. Don’t skip it, it’s what makes this cake really shine! See above for some easy instructions on how to make your own from scratch, if you can’t find any at the store. But if you do that, keep in mind you’ll need to start at least a month in advance of when you want to make the cake to give the preserved lemons enough time to ferment and develop flavour.
• Turmeric is an optional addition to the glaze, to give it a natural light yellow colour. You can use a few drops of yellow food colouring gel instead, or just leave the glaze white.

If you like your lemon pound cakes more traditional, you should try my Classic Lemon Pound Cake, or my Velvety-Soft Lemon Pound Cake with Candied Lemon recipe (which has an unbelievably soft and tender crumb!) If you also make sourdough and have a big love of all things lemon, try my Sourdough Blueberry Lemon Muffins, or if you’re in the mood for something that’s not cake at all *makes shocked noises* you should make this Lemon Meringue Pie ice cream, these Lemon Poppyseed Macarons, or these Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies!

Gourmet Preserved Lemon Bundt Cake

Make this show-stopping gourmet lemon bundt cake with an unexpected flavour twist from preserved lemon, and delicious crunchy meringue shards.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 19 minutes mins

Finishing 30 minutes mins

Servings: 16 Servings

Course: Afternoon Tea, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Equipment Method Video Notes

Ingredients

  

Meringue Shards

• 1 large egg white
• 60 g granulated sugar or double the actual weight of your egg white
• pinch cream of tartar

Cake

• 405 g granulated sugar
• zest of 3 large lemons or 4-5 smaller lemons
• 600 g all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 410 g unsalted butter room temperature
• 8 large eggs room temperature
• 200 g sour cream room temperature
• 100 g preserved lemon paste see Note #1
• 45 g lemon juice fresh-squeezed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Lemon Simple Syrup

• 120 g lemon juice
• 120 g granulated sugar

Lemon Glaze

• 180 g powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice plus more, if needed
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream plus more, if needed
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric optional (see note #2)

Equipment

• 1 12-cup bundt pan I recommend using a Nordic Ware bundt pan with a 12-cup capacity. Otherwise, use a heavy and thick-walled bundt pan for the best results, and avoid silicone.
• Large stand mixer Or a large mixing bowl and hand mixer. This recipe will NOT fit into a standard tilt-head Kitchen-Aid mixer!

Method

 

Meringue Shards

1. Preheat the oven to 200˚F (95˚C) and line a baking sheet with parchment. Don't use a silicone baking mat, as the meringue may not dry out and crisp up as thoroughly.
2. In a spotlessly-clean stand mixer bowl on a zeroed-out scale, weigh 1 large egg white. In a separate small bowl, weigh out double the weight of sugar. Or you can skip weighing the egg, and simply weigh out 60 g granulated sugar, which should be close enough! Add a pinch cream of tartar to the egg white.
3. On medium speed using the whisk attachment, whip the egg white until it begins to get foamy, then gradually stream in the sugar over the next minute or two. Increase the speed to high, and keep whipping until you almost reach stiff peaks (around 10 minutes). See note #3 if you're using a hand mixer.
4. Spread the meringue out onto the lined baking sheet, aiming to get a thin layer somewhere between ⅛-¼" (3-6 mm) thick. The shape doesn't matter, as you'll be breaking it into irregular shards to decorate the cake.
5. Bake for around 1½ hours, or until the meringue has dried out and can easily lift off the parchment. Leave to cool completely.
6. You can make the meringue shards a few days in advance. Just let the sheet of meringue cool completely before breaking it into irregular pieces, then transfer to an airtight container. Be very careful not to put warm meringue in an airtight container, or condensation will absorb into the meringue and ruin it.

Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350˚F (175˚C). Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with baking spray, making sure to get on every surface so the cake will remove cleanly.
2. Add 405 g granulated sugar and the zest of 3 large lemons to a large mixing bowl, or to the bowl of a large stand mixer (see note #4). Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until it's very fragrant and looks a bit like damp sand.
3. Add 600 g all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and 2 teaspoons fine sea salt and mix on low speed to combine.
4. Add 410 g unsalted butter. Start the mixer on low speed until the butter starts to incorporate with the dry ingredients. Increase the speed to medium and mix until everything is uniformly pale yellow and crumbly, about 5 minutes.
5. Add 8 large eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for another minute after the last egg is added.
6. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together 200 g sour cream, 100 g preserved lemon paste, 45 g lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extractuntil smooth. Add half of this mixture to the stand mixer bowl, and beat until incorporated. Add the rest of it and beat to combine.
7. Transfer to the bundt pan and smooth out the top. Bake until the top is puffy, cracked, and golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 55-65 minutes). When the cake is about 10 minutes away from being done, begin making the Lemon Simple Syrup (recipe follows)

Lemon Simple Syrup

1. Add 120 g lemon juice and 120 g granulated sugar to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until the sugar dissolves.
2. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, and while it's still in the pan, use a toothpick to poke holes all over the top of the cake. Brush about one-third of the syrup over it, and leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes.
3. Carefully invert the cake onto a plate or wire cooling rack. While it's still warm, brush the rest of the syrup over the cake. Leave it to cool completely.

Lemon Glaze & Assembling the Cake

1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together 180 g powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon heavy cream, and optionally ¼ teaspoon turmeric, until smooth.
2. Immediately pour it over the cake, letting it drip over the sides. Before the glaze sets, break the meringue sheet into irregular shards and press pieces into the glaze wherever you like.
3. Leave the cake uncovered until the glaze sets, about 30 minutes. Then slice and serve!

Video

Notes

1. Preserved lemon paste is made by taking preserved lemons (removing their seeds) and blending them up with the brine in the jar. You can blend your whole jar of preserved lemons, and use all the brine. Strain the brine into the jar to make sure you don’t get any seeds in the paste, and blend until smooth. Store the paste in a clean glass jar in your fridge. It should last for a year or so, as long as you’re careful to only use clean utensils in the jar.
2. Turmeric is added to the glaze to give it a natural light yellow colour, it’s not enough to notice the flavour. You can use a few drops of yellow food gel instead, for a brighter yellow colour, or skip colouring entirely and let the glaze stay white.
3. You can use a hand mixer to whip the meringue, but it will take much longer to whip to nearly stiff peaks than a stand mixer would. Expect it to take at least 15 minutes.
4. A standard-size tilt-head Kitchen-Aid mixer is not large enough for this recipe! I used my Ooni Halo Pro mixer which was the perfect size. Any stand mixer with a large capacity of should work (like a 5 or 6 quart bowl-lift Kitchen-Aid). If you don’t have a large stand mixer, you can use a large mixing bowl and a hand mixer instead.

This recipe was very much inspired by the Preserved Lemon and Labne Cake recipe from Good Things, a really lovely book by Samin Nosrat (best known as the author of the groundbreaking book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat). While my recipe is original, I never would have come up with the idea to blend preserved lemons into a paste or to use the paste in a cake recipe without her book, so she deserves a huge shout-out for her role in inspiring this recipe. Do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy of Good Things, you won’t regret it!