Ultralemony Lemon Bundt Cake with Almond Glaze - Mother's Day - Baked Occasions

This was supposed to be a super easy bundt cake to make. It took some extra time with the effort involved in zesting so many lemons, but I knew that would give great flavor. It was a very straightforward recipe and I thought I would be very successful making this one. I was not sure how my children would react to the flavor since lemon is not a favorite. They do enjoy lemonade though, so I had hopes for a sweet lemon dessert going over well.

The cake itself was so simple to mix and I put it in the oven. Then I went to defeat my boys in some Mario Kart on Mother's Day afternoon while it was baking. As far as the racing went, Big Man beat me in a couple of races, Bear and Mr. T are still learning so are easier to beat, but overall I got the most points and won. I'm sure this will not last too many more years as they get better and better at these games and I play less. The cake was another story. I came upstairs after the first 50 minutes of baking to check on the progress and a top portion of the cake had expanded over the side of the pan and fell on the bottom of my oven. I have never seen this happen before. Hubby and I were both flabbergasted and had no idea how this even happened, I could see that the remainder of the cake needed more time though so I decided to press on and bake it a little longer.

After an hour the cake was done baking and cake out to cool. Half of it looked fine, and the other half had a giant crater where the missing piece had jumped out of the pan. Later I got the cake out just fine, added the syrup, and then added the glaze. I opted not to put the almonds on top because I forgot to purchase slivered almonds at the store and the children would not have appreciated them. Once the cake was completed and standing upright you could not tell that it had issues in the baking until cutting into the cake.

The finished product had a very pronounced lemon flavor, but it was fresh and not fake. The cake itself was very moist and the lemon flavor was not overpowering. The syrup that was poured onto was also very nice and I enjoyed that. The glaze was not a favorite of mine, it was too sweet. I had to add extra sugar to make it a good pouring consistency and it became far too sweet so that I no longer enjoyed it. The boys were excited to try the cake but then found the flavor to have too much lemon and not be a favorite. I had hopes that Hubby would try this one since there is a no-bake lemon cheesecake his mom would make that was a favorite. Nope, he declared that he only likes the fake lemon flavor, not the real thing.

The recipe and reviews on this recipe from other bakers are available on Baked Sunday Mornings here.

Timing: Recipe States: recipe does not say, My Actual Timing: 2 hours, 23 minutes
Servings: Recipe States: 12-16 servings,  Servings For My Family: 14 servings
Leftovers: It was just as good the next day.


Family Ratings:
Me: It was very tasty, but the glaze was too sweet so I would leave that off.
Hubby: He wanted fake lemon flavor.
Big Man: He tasted it and told me it was far too lemony.
Bear: Just plain not a fan.
Mr. T: He took a couple more bites than the other boys, but still determined that there was too much lemon flavor.

Will I repeat: I may repeat this for a group of women, like for Mops.

What will I change: I would leave the glaze off of this cake.