Lemon and white chocolate bundt cake with honey lemon icing
A homey yet elevated bundt cake, made with white chocolate and lemon and drizzled with a lemon honey icing. Made with sour cream for moisture and richness.
Super easy and simple to make. Based on my matcha white chocolate melon pan loaf cake recipe, it is made easier with just one ‘colour’/ batter and just a simple icing on top.
I’m also trying out something new so here’s a new button…
Jump to photography thought process
When I think bundt cake, I immediately think homey and rustic. Why? Not sure, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are as quick and easy to whip up as a regular single layer cake, but have that little bit of extra ✨spice✨ because of its shape. Something about the different designs of bundts, or maybe it’s just the hole in the middle. The donut shape. Everyone loves a donut. Our monkey brains love a donut. I love a donut.
But I digress.
Interesting how, to me at least, lemon feels like such a ‘spring’ and ‘summer’ kind of flavour, even though citrus fruits are winter fruits. Is it just because of that zing that we associate with ‘energy’ and thus the warmer, brighter seasons? Or something else?
Anyway, that was also a digression, I apologise. We’re all about the hard-hitting questions here, folks.
Obviously feel free to just make a lemon icing if you don’t have honey. I can’t force you to use honey (though I think it gives the cake that little extra oomph).
If you want it more as a glaze, make it a little runnier by adding more liquid (lemon juice, water, or milk). If you prefer it thicker, use less liquid. There’s really no right or wrong here. Maybe even add some earl grey! That was actually my initial plan with this cake (the earl grey was going to go in the batter), but I had lemons to use, so lemon cake it was.
I know white chocolate can be a little fiddly to melt with butter, but don’t worry too much even if it looks like it isn’t melting together evenly. It’s all going to go into the cake batter. Combined or separated, it still works. Just make there are no unmelted bits so that each bit of batter gets some white choc.
Avoid overmixing the batter when you get to step 7, which is when you mix in the flour and liquids. Especially since the final step for the batter is folding in the white chocolate mixture, you don’t want to completely mix in the dry and wet. You just want to mix it until there are no more big pockets of either wet or dry. There still being streaks of wet or dry is good since you’ll do the final mix when you incorporate the chocolate.
Top with the lemon honey icing and some lemon zest, or just dust with icing sugar. To be completely honest, if I were being lazy, I would have totally been happy with just dusting with icing sugar. However, the honey in the icing does jazz it up, and the icing is so quick to make anyway. ESPECIALLY if you use icing sugar mixture! Whenever I make icing now, I will always use icing sugar mixture over pure icing sugar simply because it doesn’t clump together like the pure stuff does. Makes it WAY easier to sift.
Photography thought process
A new section that I’m trying out! In this section, I talk briefly about decisions I made when shooting the images for anyone who is interested in the photography side of things.
For this particular shoot, I wanted that spring, natural kind of vibe because of the way I associate lemon with spring/summer, hence the use of the baby’s breath and the slightly harsh, kind of dappled light. I chose to use my large bit of calico fabric on the surface. It lends itself quite well to the rustic, natural feel due to its texture and off-white colour, especially when creases are left in it (plus it is super cheap!). I added the human element (me) to the images as well, and deliberately chose to blur the action in one of the images to add some energy, again adding to that bright, energised feel of spring. However, I chose to freeze the action of the drizzle, sift, etc. so you can clearly see what it is and what is happening. Especially with the drizzle and sift, the S-shape they form add to the composition and would have been less clear if blurred (though this is a personal preference!). The baby’s breath was also used to add a little green into the image to signify spring and life.
Recipe
For the lemon and white chocolate bundt cake
Makes 1 bundt cake
INGREDIENTS:
150g white chocolate, chopped
40g unsalted butter
250g unsalted butter, room temperature
330g castor sugar
2tbsp lemon zest, approx. 10g
4 eggs
150g sour cream
100ml lemon juice
375g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
3/4tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
METHOD:
1. Generously grease a bundt tin and set aside. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. In a small bowl, melt the white chocolate with 40g butter in the microwave. Set aside.
3. In another small bowl, combine the sugar and zest. Gently press the zest into the sugar. Once well combined, set aside.
4. In a separate small bowl or measuring jug, combine the sour cream and lemon juice. Stir to loosen the sour cream and incorporate the juice. Set aside.
5. In yet another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
6. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the 250g butter and the sugar/zest mixture until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, ensuring each egg is well incorporated before adding the next.
7. Add half of the flour mixture. Combine on the lowest speed or fold with a spatula. Add the sour cream mixture and do the same. Finally, add in the rest of the flour mixture. Fold until there are a few streaks of flour left.
8. Add in the white chocolate mixture (you may need to heat it up again) and fold until evenly incorporated.
9. Pour batter into prepared bundt tin. Bake for 55 minutes or until it bounces back when lightly pressed and a skewer comes out clean. You may need to cover it with foil 3/4 of the way through the baking if it is browning too quickly.
10. Cool for 10 minutes then flip out onto a cooling rack.
For the honey lemon icing
INGREDIENTS:
100g icing sugar/ icing sugar mixture
2tbsp honey, approx. 34g
lemon juice (start with 1tbsp)
METHOD:
1. In a bowl, sift the icing sugar. Add the honey and 1tbsp of lemon juice. Stir to combine. If you’d like it thinner, add more lemon juice.
That’s it!
Drizzle the icing over the cooled cake and enjoy fresh at room temperature.
