Lemon Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping

I have a love / hate relationship with lemon cakes. Most of the store and bakery options I've tried have tasted harsh and artificial. No doubt they rely on lemon extracts and flavorings and those do not appeal to me. Even my own attempts to make lemon cake, using lemon juice, have been too harsh. But I'm still tempted whenever I see a photo or recipe which explains why I pinned this beautiful looking cake from Martha Stewart. A few weeks later, I saw that Elyse from The Cultural Dish had made the recipe and her photo was as tempting as the original so I was determined to give it a try.

In fact, the truth is that I made this cake twice. The first time I was concerned about the large amount of lemon zest called for in the recipe. I worried it would taste harsh and decided to cut it in half. Then Brian expressed concern that the cake would be too dry (he likes his cakes extremely moist) and asked me to include the blueberries he'd just brought home from Costco. Blueberries and lemon do go well together but this was supposed to be a lemon cake. Oh, well. I love him so I did as he asked. The resulting cake was, in fact, very delicious but the blueberries (and probably the fact that I used only half the lemon zest) completely obscured the lemon flavor. The cake was cooked through but too heavy to lift out of the tube pan and Brian had to help me. He absolutely loved the result and happily ate all of it but I still wanted my lemon cake.

The following week I remade the cake and this time I followed the exact instructions. Well, with one exception. The original recipe called for the inclusion of candied lemons which didn't really sound appealing. Elyse left them out and I followed her example. But otherwise, and over Brian's protestations, I faithfully followed what was written.  And I was rewarded with the best lemon cake I've ever tasted. It filled the air with a light, citrus aroma and the taste was very lemony and yet completely delicate.

The original recipe also includes a glaze but I tend to prefer a simpler dusting of powdered sugar on my desserts. I've included the original glaze ingredients in the recipe, though, if you'd like to try it. I will say that this cake also has a very thick streusel layer. You could easily halve the amounts in the recipe and still have enough if you wanted less streusel. Although, actually, I can't think of any reason why anyone would want less streusel... Oh, and Brian still prefers the blueberry version. Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Streusel Topping:
1 3/4 Cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 Sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
3/4 Cup light brown sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon (not in the original recipe)

Mix together the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork until clumps form. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the batter.

For the Cake:
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon salt (original recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons)
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Cup sugar
3-4 Tablespoons lemon zest (about 5-6 lemons)
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Teaspoon lemon juice
1 Cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a tube (angel food) pan. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and lemon zest. When that has been creamed, add in the eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and sour cream and beat until combined. Working in batches, add in the flour mixture until everything is combined.

Spoon the batter into the pan and even it out. Evenly sprinkle on the chilled streusel and bake for 55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool thoroughly before removing from the pan.

For the Glaze:
1/4 Cup lemon juice
1 Cup confectioner's sugar

Finish the cake by whisking together the lemon juice and confectioner's sugar and drizzling over the cake. Or, leave off the glaze and dust the top of the cake with confectioner's sugar before serving.