Lush Lemon Pound Cake

  Lush Lemon Pound Cake. I wanted to share my favorite recipe for this fabulously delicious old fashioned lemon pound cake with you today. If you are a fan of lemon and of cake, prepare yourself to fall in love! 
This easy pound cake recipe uses simple ingredients that most of us always  have in our kitchens and packs a triple lemon wallop!  With plenty of lemon zest, lemon juice and lemon extract, it scores a hat-trick of lush lemon flavours every single time you bake it!
 
This is a delicious lemon pound cake which is wonderfully moist and flavourful.  The texture in this is pound cake beautiful! It boasts a sweet lemon drizzle icing that you spoon over the finished cake, making it the perfect pound cake for anyone who loves lemon. (Like me!)
 
I always like to use unwaxed lemons in my baking if I can get them. Don't worry if you can't however. Regular lemons work just fine.  I always scrub my lemons, unwaxed or not.
You want to get rid of any nasty chemicals or pesticides they may have been sprayed with. Just scrub them really well with  warm water and then dry them off.  
Do you keep your lemons on the countertop? I do. Room temperature lemons give you the most juice. Another handy tip!
  
I think of all the cakes you can bake, pound cake has always been my absolute favorite. Mom used to buy it by the slab from the bread man every now and then.  We would enjoy it in thick slices with canned peaches as an extra special dessert.
It was dense and oh so very delicious. I much prefer it over any other kind of cake.  But just what is it that makes a pound cake a pound cake?
 
Pound cakes are what are known as "high ratio" cakes. This simply means that the ratio of sugar in the recipe exceeds the weight/measure of any flour used.  Traditionally these cakes were made with equal measures of eggs, sugar, butter and flour.
That was great in the days when most people had their own cows and chickens, but really nowadays it is not all that viable costwise, although a cake in those proportions would certainly be rich and decadent. Today we tend to work with what is  a close and acceptable alternative.
 
In the UK, they have a cake called a Madeira Cake. It is very similar to pound cake in flavor and texture.  I love, LOVE Madeira Cake. You can find my recipe for Madeira Cake here.  I warn you now, it is absolutely delicious! 
But so is this Lemon Pound Cake! This is the perfect pound cake in my opinion.  And it is very easy to make.
  
One thing which I always do to maximise the lemon flavor in any lemon bake/make is a little trick i learned from Dorie Greenspan.  That is to rub any lemon zest used in the recipe completely into the sugar. 
Simply drop the lemon zest into a bowl with the sugar and star rubbing the two together with your fingertips. This simple step forces the lemon zest to release all of its lemony oils enabling the sugar to perfectly capture them.  
 
If you make it a habit to always do this, you will always have beautiful, perfectly flavoured lemon bakes! Its just a simple thing, but it does make a huge difference.
Another thing I do when baking a cake is I try to have all of my ingredients at room temperature, especially if you are going to be separating and beating egg whites. It is common knowledge that room temperature egg whites give you the most volume.
 
It just makes sense that if you are going to make sure your eggs are at room temperature, you will want to make sure everything else is also at like temperature. Its a simple thing. 
I always use a bundt pan for this. It makes for such a pretty cake.  If you don't have a bundt tin however you can bake it in two large loaf tins (9 X 5 inches).  I am not entirely sure of the timings on this however, so do start checking it at about the 55 minute mark.

This is a wonderful cake that is not only moist and delicious, but it will keep for days.  It also freezes very well, so if you are a smaller family, you can just cut it into quarters, wrap each quarter well (airtight) and you can keep it in the freezer for up to six months. (I would not glaze in that case.)
This cake is beautiful cut into slices and enjoyed with a hot cuppa, or with scoops of ice cream, or with berries or other fruits spooned over top.  This is a cake that is just plain meant to be enjoyed any which way you choose to indulge.  I highly recommend!
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Lush Lemon Poundcake

Yield: Makes 12Author: Marie Raynerprep time: 20 Mincook time: 1 H & 10 Mtotal time: 1 H & 30 MThis is an old fashioned, made from scratch. lush and delicious Lemon Poundcake. Cake doesn't get much better than this!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened (345g)
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar (430g)
• 7 large free range eggs, room temperature (separated)
• 3/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (60ml)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (60g)
• 2 tsp pure lemon extract
• the zest of one large unwaxed lemon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups plain, all purpose flour (490g)

For the glaze:

• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted (260g)
• 2 TBS fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325*F/165*C/ gas mark 3. Butter a (12 cup) bundt tin really well with some shortening.  Dust with flour, tapping out any excess. Set aside.
2. Rub the lemon zest with the sugar for the cake until the sugar smells really lemony. Set aside.
3. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl. Set aside.
4. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar in a clean glass bowl until they form stiff peaks. Set aside.
5. Cream the butter in another bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon sugar, adding it gradually. Scrape the bowl occasionally as needed.  Beat in the egg yolks one at a time until thoroughly combined.  Stir in the lemon juice, sour cream and lemon extract.
6. Stir the flour mixture into the cake batter until smooth and thoroughly combined.  Gently fold in the egg whites, folding just until no streaks remain and taking care not to overmix. Spoon into the prepared cake tin.
7. Bake in th center of the preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake tin comes out clean.
8. Let cake cool in the tin for 10 minutes before tipping cake out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
9. To make the icing, whisk the icing sugar together with the lemon juice until smooth. You want a thin icing that you can easily spoon over the cake.
10. Spoon the icing over the cake and allow to set before serving.

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