Currently baking out of Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Back in 2008, when this cookbook was published, the New York bakery by the same name was garnering all sorts of accolades. Oprah had declared their brownies “one of her favorite things,” and the owners had recently appeared on the Martha Stewart Show. I started hearing about this book when some of my favorite food bloggers started baking from it. One quick trip to the bookstore, and I was ready to join them. I tried a few recipes, but then other books caught my attention, and this one ended up stuck back into the bookshelf.

But here it is, a new year, and I’m ready to give this book another chance (as well as try those brownies!). At first glance, Baked looks like a fairly standard baking book. But take a closer look, and you’ll find some not-so-standard recipes, such as a rootbeer cake and peanut butter rice krispy treats.

The first recipe I chose was a lemon loaf cake, mainly because I had a ton of lemon juice sitting in the fridge. The cake is made mostly in the food processor, with the dry ingredients folded in at the end. This is a seriously lemony cake. It calls for lemon zest and juice in the batter, the hot cake is brushed with a lemon syrup after baking and the cooled cake is drizzled with a lemon glaze.

My cake didn’t dome like the picture in the book, but it was moist and tender with a nice lemon punch. The glaze is listed as optional, but I’d encourage you not to leave it out. It adds a burst of tartness that contrasts nicely with the slightly sweeter cake.