Light Lemon Bundt Cake

This recipe comes from America's Test Kitchen's Healthy Family Cookbook, I was so intrigued by this recipe when browsing through this cookbook. It's a bundt cake with only 4 tbsp of butter?!! Have you heard of such a thing?! I decided to make it since I had some lemons available.

The result is interesting. This cake uses beaten egg whites like a chiffon cake, but the texture is not light and airy like a chiffon cake. The texture is like a normal bundt cake, but it doesn't have the taste of a butter bundt cake.

Overall it's a good cake if you want a healthy bundt cake, but personally, I would rather have a smaller piece of a *real* bundt cake. I see a bundt cake and I have certain expectations of the taste, and this just doesn't match up. If you are able to erase all preconceived notions of bundt cakes, then this might be a cake for you.

Here's the recipe.

Light Lemon Bundt Cake
adapted from America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook

baking spray with flour
3 cups (12 oz) cake flour
1 1/2 cups (10.5 oz) sugar (see note)
1/4 cup grated lemon zest plus 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 large egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of a 12-cup bundt pan thoroughly with the baking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, 1 cup of sugar, zest, salt, baking powder, baking soda together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, egg yolks, oil, melted butter, and vanilla together.

3. In a large bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase the mixer speed to medium--high and whip the whites to soft, billowy mounds, about 1 minute. Gradually whip in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and continue to whip the whites until they are glossy and form stiff peaks, 2 to 6 minutes.

4. Whisk the milk mixture and lemon juice into the flour mixture until smooth. Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter with a large rubber spatula until combined, smearing any stubborn pockets of egg white against the side of the bowl.

5. Scrape the butter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

6. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip it out onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely, about 2 hours.

Notes:

• *The original recipe uses 2 cups of sugar, I cut it down to 1 1/2 and thought it was sweet enough.