Simple Lemon Pound Cake

Many pound cake recipes require lots of fuss. Here’s instructions I found regarding the proper making of a pound cake:

*Make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature, particularly the fat, eggs and any liquid you may be using. It’s essential that all these items be at room temperature:

• If the butter is too cold, it won’t beat evenly; it won’t incorporate air and increase in volume.
• When eggs and liquid are cold, the batter will curdle. Instead of a smooth, homogenous batter, it will separate into liquid and fat, and the cake’s texture may be denser than you like.
• If any of the ingredients are warm, the fat will melt and you won’t be able to whip air into the mixture.

Blah, blah, blah. Too complicated. Too stressful! Also, most of the recipes I’ve found require separate beating of the egg whites and adding the yolks separately. Which, I know from experience creates a delicious fluffy pound cake – but still…there’s got to be an easier way. Finally, I found a simple pound cake recipe that turned out as good as any fussy recipe I’ve ever made – despite the fact that I poured hot (gasp!) butter into my eggs and sugar. The trick is as close as your food processor – and I’m always looking for another way to use mine.

Simple Lemon Pound Cake

1 1/2 C cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 C sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
16 T (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and hot
2 T fresh grated lemon zest
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
–If lemon doesn’t float your boat – just leave it out. 🙂

1. Preheat oven to 35o°. Grease and flour an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.

2. Process the sugar, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla together in a food processor (or blender) until combined, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, pour the hot melted butter through the feed tube in a steady stream until combined, about 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.

3. Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and whisk gently to combine until just a few streaks of flour remain. Repeat twice more with the remaining flour mixture, then continue to whisk the batter gently until most lumps are gone (do not overmix).

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50-60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, then flip it out onto a wire rack. Turn the cake right side up and let it cool completely, about 2 hours, before serving.

Because I love love love lemon – I decided to make a glaze to drizzle over my cake. Mmmmmm.

Lemon Glaze

1/4 C fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 C powdered sugar

Whisk ingredients together and drizzle over cooled cake.