Dianne Filey was a nurse at an office I used to administer. She made the best Lemon Cake ever. She would not give me her recipe. I begged. I pleaded. I offered money, although apparently not enough.
I never got it from her, although I ate her cake many times over the years. This is my version. Is it as good? I don't know because I haven't had her cake since 2000. But this one is pretty good.
Glaze
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan or a loaf pan. All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In your mixer bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla on medium to medium high speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl twice during the process. (Stop the mixer before scraping...but you knew that). Add eggs one at a time, mixing 5-10 seconds after each egg and scraping
the bowl each time. After the last egg is added, mix for 10 seconds just to make sure everything is smooth.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and the zest of the lemon, and slowly mix in until combined. Add the milk and mix until combined. Add 1/3 more of the flour, mix until combined (about 10 seconds). Add the last of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl. Mix on medium until velvety smooth, but no more than 30 seconds. Pour into the pan and bake in the oven for 35 minutes, turning in the oven after 20 minutes to assure even baking.
After the cake has been in the oven for 20 minutes or so, make the glaze. In a saucepan, combine the lemon and sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
As soon as you remove the cake from the oven using a skewer or chopsticks, poke a bunch of holes down into the cake. Pour/brush 1/2 of the glaze over the cake so that it seeps down into the holes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes. Use a knife around the edge of the cake to free it up, and turn it out bottom up onto a piece of parchment or foil on a rack. Poke more holes in the now top of the cake and brush more glaze on the top. Brush remaining glaze onto the sides of the cake. Let the cake finish cooling then wrap and let sit for 24 hours (if you can).