Food You Can Eat: Celebrity Sunday Matinee: Jamie Lee Curtis’s Lemon Cake

On this one I’m cheating. If you go online (always a mistake) and search for Jamie Lee Curtis recipes this is the only one that comes up, and it comes up often. Unfortunately you have to dig deep to find a site that isn’t a scam or worse. I tracked down its source, though: it is from Ann Byrn’s The Cake Mix Doctor and this is Jame’s “go-to cake.” So she is merely the messenger here, but I wanted to do something to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the release of the original Halloween movie in 1978. In the movie October 30th is the day arch-villain Michael Myers escapes from custody and goes on his homicidal rampage. Since the median age in the US is 38, well over half the country was not alive when it came out. Think about that for a minute. I think her A Fish Called Wanda was much better, and even Knives Out was superior to anything from the Halloween franchise, but I’m not much of a fan of horror movies in general.

I think we all know the plot. Jame is the featured star and heroine. The unmasked Michael Myers is Tony Moran, troubled Erin Moran’s older brother in real life (RIP). Kyle Richards is in it—she went on to be one of the founding members of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and thus has provided a great service to the nation, or at least to Bravoland.

Another detour. Let’s talk about Jame’s husband, Christopher Guest. Married since 1984 (at the home of their mutual friend Rob Reiner, of course), Guest I think is best known for being in Spinal Tap and for his mockumentaries (a term he despises) co-written by comedic genius Eugene Levy, like Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and Waiting for Guffman. But did you know that his full name is Christopher Haden-Guest, and he is the 5th Baron Haden-Guest? Yes, and he sits in the House of Lords, or at least he can if he ever wants to show up. He is also the half-brother of Anthony Haden-Guest, the prolific writer in many formats and indefatigable man-about-town. You might remember that name if you read Spy: they had an irregularly recurring feature where they’d trail him and he’d hit up half a dozen venues on an average weeknight.

Unfortunately for his daughters (he and Jame have two, adopted) the hereditary peerage of the Haden-Guests was converted to a life peerage under the House of Lords Act 1999. So there will be no more. Lots of hereditary peerages went away with that Act. Notionally it was to make way for a more diverse collection of life peers, and they certainly are more diverse: anyone who donates enough to a particular campaign or a particular party can get one nowadays, depending on who the recipient was and when the generous donation was made.

But finally, let’s squeeze in a few facts about Jamie Lee Curtis. She is famously the daughter of Hollywood royalty, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, so it is only right that she be the wife of a sitting Peer. She attended what’s now known as Harvard-Westlake, Beverly Hills High, and Choate-Rosemary, any of which is a stunning addition to a pre-college resumé. And then she went to…Mom’s alma mater, the University of the Pacific, to study law. Guess what? She dropped out after a semester. Nowadays she would have gone to USC or Brown and would have studied a “self-directed” program, preferably pass/fail.

Her film debut was actually that seminal Halloween, and one of the reasons she was cast was that Mom was in Psycho. I’m guessing that two other reasons were that her mother was Janet Leigh in general and her father was Tony Curtis. More horror movies followed, and she became the o.g. “Scream queen.” Luckily for her career she scored a role in Trading Places and then A Fish Called Wanda so she was able to branch out and show her comedic chops. She appeared in the remake of Freaky Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan, which, really, that was unnecessary.

Over on the TV side it hardly needs mentioning that she appeared several times on Match Game, who didn’t, and co-starred with Richard Lewis on Anything But Love, which was a perfectly charming show that lasted four seasons. I’m leaving out other stuff because I haven’t seen it and it’s so sporadic, but she’s very busy. She blogs for HuffPost, which I didn’t know, and I know only too well she is the spokesperson for gut-busting Activia, which seems like a strange flex, but if the barely coherent J.J. Walker can go on the teevee promoting predatory reverse mortgages, why shouldn’t she collect a few paychecks in this way?

So here’s Ann Byrn’s by way of Jamie Lee Curtis Lemon Cake.

Ingredients:

Vegetable cooking spray or shortening, for greasing the pan
All-purpose flour, for dusting the pan
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 to 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, or as needed
1 (15.25-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3-ounce) package lemon gelatin
3 large eggs
2/3 cup hot tap water
2/3 cup vegetable oil

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. [SURPRISE! TRICK OR TREAT! THIS IS A BUNDT CAKE!] Set the pan aside.

Place 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest and the lemon juice in a small bowl. Whisk in enough confectioners’ sugar to create a pourable glaze. Thin with a little water if needed. Set the glaze aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cake mix, gelatin, and remaining 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Add the eggs, water, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until blended, about 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the batter is smooth, about 1 minute. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.

Place the pan in the oven and bake until cake is golden brown and the top springs back when gently pressed in the middle, 30 to 35 minutes. 

Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a long knife around the edges of the cake, shake the pan gently, and invert the cake onto a wire rack or cake plate. If you are using a rack, slide a piece of wax paper or parchment paper under the rack to catch drips. Pour the reserved glaze over the cake. (If desired, you can poke holes in the cake with a chopstick or skewer and let the glaze dribble into the holes.) Let the cake cool at least 20 minutes longer before slicing. Store, lightly covered, at room temperature for up to five days.