I saw fresh yuzu in a local market and I had to buy some - even though I didn’t really have a plan for what to do with them and they were definitely on the expensive side. But I have never seen it available fresh before here, so I grabbed a few without a clear plan. They smelled amazing, like a fresh, floral mild lemon. My sister had recently made an excellent lemon bundt cake from Claire Saffitz’s What’s for Dessert, and I was inspired to try it with the yuzu.

Yuzu look like a bit like squat little mandarin oranges, except that they are lemon yellow. Their flavour is a little more delicate, floral and mild than lemon juice, a bit more subtle and less sour. Don’t skimp on zest - add as much yuzu zest as you possibly can to get a bright, bold yuzu flavour.

Notes:

Yuzu fruits don’t give very much juice, about a scant tablespoon per fruit, so I boosted the amount with some bottled yuzu juice that I already had on hand.
Depending on where you live, fresh yuzu may be very difficult to find - it usually is not available for me. This recipe will work well with bottled yuzu juice. If you use bottled yuzu juice, adding the zest from a couple lemons will add some fresh citrus will boost the overall fresh citrus flavour. If you can’t find either fresh or bottled yuzu juice, try this with lemons as in Claire Saffitz’s excellent original recipe, it’s delicious either way.
I added a yuzu icing drizzle to my cake, a bit of an extra flourish that isn’t in the original recipe. I did it because I think a bundt cake looks very attractive with a drizzle of icing that contrasts with the colour of the cake, and because I wanted an extra opportunity to layer in yuzu flavour, as it’s more delicate than lemon and I didn’t want the flavour to get lost. I also found a freeze dried yuzu powder that I wanted to experiment with, but you can do this drizzle with fresh or bottled yuzu juice, or lemon juice. Or you can skip it altogether if you think this cake doesn’t need both a glaze and an icing. It will be delicious with any option.
I cut the recipe in half and used a smaller bundt pan (6 cup capacity / 9” diameter). You can double the recipe if you want to serve more people; make sure to use a 12 cup bundt pan.

yuzu bundt cake

adapted from What’s for Dessert?

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon finely grated yuzu yest
¾ cup + 2 tbs sugar + 1/3 cup for the glaze
6 tbs yuzu juice, divided (about 6 fresh yuzus, or bottled juice will work well too)
½ cup whole milk at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
½ cup + 3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
Cake spray with flour or butter and flour for coating the pan

Heat the oven to 350° F. Thoroughly mix together dry in a bowl: flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

Zest yuzu directly into the bowl of your stand mixer (or mixing bowl you will be using with a hand mixer), in order to catch all the zest and oils. Mix zest and sugar together. After zesting, juice the yuzus.

Add eggs to the sugar-zest mixture and beat on medium-high speed using the whisk attachment until very thick and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Reduce the speed and slowly pour in the olive oil and mix until smooth.

Combine milk, 2 tbs yuzu juice and vanilla. Alternating, add the dry mixture and the milk mixing on low speed, starting and ending with dry. Drape a large tea towel over the mixer to prevent the flour from pouffing up in a big cloud when you mix it. Do not over mix, just combine ingredients until no streaks of flour remain. Scrape the bowl with a spatula to ensure no unmixed spots remain.

Generously spray a small bundt pan with cake spray or generously brush with melted butter and then add about 2 tbs flour to the pan, turning it all around so the flour coats every part of the buttered pan. Tip out excess flour. Pour cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out without any wet batter on it.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. While the cake cools, make the glaze. Combine remaining 1/4 cup yuzu juice, 1/3rd cup granulated sugar and 1 tbs olive oil. Whisk until the sugar dissolves and you have a smooth glaze.

Use a paring knife to carefully work around the edge of the cake to ensure it is loose. Then flip the cake over onto a cooling rack.

Immediately drizzle the cake with the glaze, brushing with a pastry brush to coat the cake all over, including the sides.

yuzu icing

½ cup icing sugar
2 tbs yuzu juice or lemon juice
2 tsp yuzu or lemon zest (optional)
1 tsp freeze dried yuzu powder (optional)

Combine all ingredients, stirring until you have a smooth, thick icing. Drizzle the icing over the cake, letting it run down the sides, and let the icing set up before serving for about an hour.