Lemon Cake from Under The Tuscan Sun

I just finished reading "Under The Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes. We saw the movie way back when it was released. I don't remember much about it, other than it was a syrupy romance with some great scenery. I saw a news segment recently on the CBS Sunday Morning Show with Frances Mayes being interviewed and it prompted me to read the book. 

I enjoyed the book but soon realized that what I was reading was a lot different from the film, pieces of which began to slowly trickle back into my memory. I assume Mayes sold the rights to her book and the film adapters used the basic premise and the setting and then added all the fluff. I was curious as to Mayes's reaction to the film but I could not find a comment from her about it.

So, if you loved the film and are looking for romance, you probably will find the book disappointing (a lot of Goodreads reviews confirm this). On the other hand, if you really want to read about a couple buying a house in Tuscany and renovating it, you'll like it. Mayes and her husband, both college professors in San Francisco at the time, purchased Bramasole, a neglected two-hundred year-old farmhouse on five overgrown acres on a hillside in Tuscany.

As projects of this nature go, it was not all sunshine and roses (although both sunshine and roses are in great quantity here). They began by hiring three Polish workers to mend the crumbling walls which terrace the property (do a search - I love the walls as much as the house and gardens!). Interior remodeling followed, with new plumbing installed, walls torn out and reorganized and lots of scraping, painting and polishing. In addition to loving old houses, the couple are also avid gardeners and accomplished cooks. The gardens are filled with olive trees, roses, lavender and she describes their experiences with working on the garden as well as sharing recipes.

The book sometimes goes off on various tangents, such as a road tour of Italy or discussing saints. She also writes a good deal about food, which is never a bad thing. There is an entire chapter filled with recipes. I made the lemon cake today. It is like a pound cake with a nice, light lemony flavor. This is a very simple recipe with just a few ingredients. I made a few minor changes (I increased the oven temperature to 350 after reading a review that said the cake was not done at 300 degrees in 50 minutes. I also increased the amount of lemon juice just a tad.

Lemon Cake (adapted from Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes)

1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
5 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray or butter and flour a Bundt pan or tube pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar for several minutes until the mixture is very light.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Mix in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.

Add the lemon juice and the zest.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. 

Add a glaze if desired. (I made a glaze from mixing powdered sugar and lemon juice. The book calls for a glaze made by mixing 1/4 cup of soft butter, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice). 

Allow to cool on a baking rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto another wire rack to cool completely.




Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy