Food - News
The Secret To Deliciously Moist, Uncomplicated Lemon Cake
By JESS JEZIOROWSKI
To achieve a moist cake, you can replace all-purpose flour with cake flour, add some mayonnaise to your cake mix, brush syrup between layers, or add a filling like jam or mousse — but one secret ingredient can do the job just as well. The ingredient in question is something you’ll find written on the family recipe cards that get passed down from generation to generation.
Instant pudding can bump up the flavor and moisture of your lemon cake and improve its rise in the oven. When food writer Esteban Castillo tried to recreate a key lime Bundt cake sold by Nothing Bundt Cakes bakery, he added lemon instant pudding and found that it “keeps [the cake] really nice and moist.”
Joshua Pinsky, the chef at the NYC restaurant Claud, uses instant pudding in his pistachio Bundt cake but hides the boxes from his crew. Admitting that you add instant pudding to your cake may seem shameful, but it was a staple in recipes created by busy housewives in the 1950s and 1960s, who were entering the workforce but were still responsible for cooking.