Whether you’re baking a cake or cooking dinner, adding a little lemon zest is one of the best ways to wake up a dish that still needs a little extra something. But what exactly is lemon zest and how do you make it? Lemon zest is the flavorful, colorful portion of the rind of any citrus fruit. Scratch a lemon with your fingernail and you’ll smell an intensely citrusy aroma. That’s because the fruit’s essential oils reside in its rind. Zesting is one of the best ways to harness all of that flavor. To zest a lemon, always start by washing the fruit under running water and patting it dry before using it. Even if you’re just using the zest, it’s important to remove all the wax coating or anything else that might be on the outside before zesting. If…