Every year for Christmas, I used to bake my grandfather a cake and mail it to Michigan. It needed to be sturdy enough for travel, while still being delicious, so a classic lemon poundcake became my go-to recipe. I always baked it in a beehive-shaped cake pan that my grandmother got for me, and topped it with a lemon frosting drizzle—with little edible sugar bees placed around the hive as a finishing touch.

In the years since, my tastes (and talents) in the kitchen have grown, and I’ve made quite a few modifications to the original recipe. Chopped crystallized ginger gives some texture and zing, sour cream keeps the cake moist and tender (though more susceptible to damage in transit via USPS), and a honey-lemon-ginger glaze gives some more depth of flavor to the drizzle on top. Despite all the changes, this lemon cake still reminds me of my grandparents (and Midland, MI) every time I make it. I hope you enjoy!

Cake
  • 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt†
  • 0.5 tsp baking powder
  • 0.5 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract (or 2 tsp vanilla extract and
    2 scraped vanilla beans)‡
  • 2 tbsp lemon zest (that’s just the zest of
    2 lemons    , don’t bother
    measuring)
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (taken from said
    zested lemons)
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter (salted or unsalted,
    it doesn’t matter)
    at room temperature
  • 2.25 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • medium fistful of crystallized ginger

†

You technically only need 0.5 tsp of salt, but you should always double your salt.

‡

Even if you aren’t willing to double your salt, you absolutely need to double your vanilla. That being said, you can get away with 2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 scraped vanilla bean) in this recipe if you must.

Glaze (optional)
  • 1-1.5 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 0.5 tsp fresh ground ginger paste (or ginger
    powder     if necessary)
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (you should have
    enough juice left from
    your zested lemons)
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1-2 tbsp milk
  • pinch of salt
Final touches
  • hefty pinch of crystallized ginger,
    chopped
  • confectioners’ sugar
  • pinch of flaky salt
  • sugar bees*

*

What’s a “sugar bee”? It’s a cast-sugar decoration that is shaped and colored to look like a bee. I used to get them from Williams Sonoma, but they don’t sell them anymore. I do not know how to make them. Best of luck.

Baking the cake

  1. Select your cake pan. If you want to run this on easy mode, you should choose a classic bundt pan. You could also use two 9 × 5 loaf pans (or do the math to make whatever pan you have available work), but you’ll need to pay a bit more attention while it’s in the oven. More on that later.

    As mentioned above, I use a beehive shaped cake pan. Whatever your pan, grease and flour it and set your oven to 350°F. Please use butter as your grease of choice.

  2. Make sure your dishwasher and sink are empty and ready to receive your soon-to-be dirty baking dishes.

  3. Combine your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) in a medium mixing bowl. You really don’t need to sift it. Set aside.

    4. Vanilla tangent!

    If you’re just using vanilla extract, move on to Step 4. If you’re using actual vanilla beans, prepare them thusly:

    • Make a vertical incision along the full length of each pod using a sharp knife. Try to only cut through the first layer of the pod to avoid fully cutting the bean in half.
    • Run your blade along the inside of the pod to scrape out all the precious goop.
    • Mix your fresh vanilla goop in with your vanilla extract.

    If that made no sense and you’re worried about wasting your pods, just look up a YouTube tutorial on scraping vanilla beans.

    Don’t just throw away your scraped pods! Infuse something, anything! Throw each pod in some milk, or sugar, or salt, or vodka… let it sit and infuse until all that vanilla flavor gets soaked up.

  4. Combine your wet ingredients (sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice) in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.

  5. Cream together your butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

  6. Add your eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  7. Add roughly a third of your dry mixture into the butter-sugar-egg mixture and stir well. Then add half your wet mixture, then another third of your dry mixture, then the other half of your wet mixture, and finally the rest of your dry mixture.

    Do not overmix—it can be a bit lumpy, just make sure there are no clearly visible globs of flour, butter, or sour cream remaining.

  8. Roughly chop your crystallized ginger and mix it in.

  9. Pour the batter into your prepared pan(s) and pop it in the oven.

  10. While your cake is baking, make your glaze, do your dishes, and wipe down your counters.

  11. Check on your cake after 50 minutes (or 40 if you’re using two smaller pans).

    If it looks golden brown on top, take it out of the oven and insert a cake tester into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, you’re done. If it doesn’t come out clean, put the cake back in the oven and check on it every 6 minutes until the tester comes out clean.

    If you don’t have a cake tester, use the sharpest/thinnest knife you own to avoid large gaping holes in your finished cake.

    If the top of your cake is looking a little too golden brown, but your tester is still coming out gloopy, wrap some tinfoil over the top and continue to bake until done. This is more likely to happen if you don’t use a bundt pan.

  12. Let the cake rest for 15-20 minutes before taking it out of its pan to cool completely.

Making the glaze
  1. Mix the ginger, lemon juice, honey, milk, and salt together.
  2. Keep adding in confectioners’ sugar until it forms a runny glaze. Add more or less confectioners’ sugar depending on the consistency you want.
  3. Once the cake is completely cool, drizzle the glaze on top.
Adding the final touches
  1. Finely chop your crystallized ginger and sprinkle it over the top of your cake before the glaze fully dries.

    If you have sugar bees available, stick them on to the wet glaze as well.

  2. If you don’t want to do the glaze, just wait until your cake is completely cooled then lightly dust the top with confectioners’ sugar.
  3. No matter what, sprinkle the top of your cake with flaky sea salt.