Glorious, glorious pound cake…

I love pound cake.  Love it.  Buttery, dense, tender crumb.  There’s nothing bad about a pound cake (except perhaps its effects on the waistline).  So, of course, when my mom asked if I would bake a pound cake for her, I jumped at the chance.

You see, my mom is a teacher, and for her school’s annual auction, she offered a “dessert of the month” for a full year to the winning bidder.  The first dessert chosen?  Lemon pound cake!

Lemons and I go way back.  My brother Brandon and I headed a lemonade stand venture at the young ages of 5 and 8.  What did I learn from this experience?  Well, aside from the fact that cul de sacs aren’t ripe areas for big business, people do love their lemons!

This cake has a lot of lemon love in it.  The cake itself has 1 tsp of lemon extract, while the icing has the juice and zest of two lemons.  While I was unable to try this cake (I’m not sure the bid-winning family would have appreciated receiving their cake with a conspicuous forkful missing), it smelled divine.   This recipe is definitely worth making; plus, you could sub out the lemon extract for any flavor you wanted.  The basic recipe is a fabulous blank canvas for deliciousness!

Lemon Pound Cake

adapted from Cooking in the South with Johnnie Gabriel

 

For the cake:

1 cup (2 sticks)  butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

5 jumbo eggs

3 1/2 cups AP flour, spooned and swept

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon extract

1 cup buttermilk

Icing, see below

 

(1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour bundt pan.

(2) Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

(3) Pour vanilla and lemon extracts into milk.  Set aside.

(4) Beat butter and shortening together on medium to high speed until light and fluffy.  On medium speed, slowly add sugar.  Turn speed up to medium high and cream the mixture and until light and fluffy.

(5) On medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

(6) On slow speed, alternate flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  (Use four portions of flour, three portions of milk.)  Mix only until incorporated.

(7) Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake for 75-80 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

(8) Cool for approximately 10-15 minutes before turning cake out and icing it (see icing recipe below).

 

For the icing:

2 lemons

1 TBS butter, melted

8 oz. confectioners’ sugar

(1) While pound cake is cooling, melt 1 TBS butter in a medium-sized bowl.

(2) Zest both lemons over the melted butter.  Then, juice the lemons into that same bowl.

(3) Whisk in the confectioners’ sugar until no lumps remain.  Spoon icing over cake, and allow cake to continue to cool.