This was a rainy day cake. I mixed all the ingredients together while it poured outside my windows and the sky looked dark and mean. By the time I put it in the oven the rain had stopped and the sun peaked out so that I could open the windows and breathe in that lovely scent of spring.
Every bite of this cake is lemony, light, moist, and sweet. It’s a really good cake. If you wanted to you could make a lemony glaze or syrup to drizzle over the top but I think it’s sweet enough the way it is, with just a dusting of powdered sugar.
By the way, pound cake refers to a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Since that would make a beast of a cake many pound cake recipes are adapted. I halved all the ingredients from the original of this recipe to fit my 8 cup bundt pan. The only thing I didn’t reduce was the lemon zest and juice giving the cake a wonderfully bright, lemony flavour. Zing!
Sour Cream and Lemon Pound Cake
adapted from Epicurious
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- powdered sugar, to dust
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 8-cup tube/Bundt pan. Dust pan with cake flour; tap out excess flour.
- Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Using a rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Mix in sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
- Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around cake in pan. Turn out cake.
- Carefully turn cake right side up on rack and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature).
Otherwise known as really lemony lemon cake, since that is the most accurate and ridiculous way to describe it, non?
There’s been some serious lemon love going on my kitchen lately. First the lemon poppy seed muffins and now this. I’m okay with it. I might actually make some lemon buttermilk cookies this weekend with the gallons of buttermilk I seem to have in my fridge.
So, cake.
I’m not going to lie about it, I thought this cake was really tasty. I think you should go and buy a mini army of lemons and get baking.
If you follow this recipe you’ll end up with two cakes or loaves and a lot of happy friends. Make one for yourself and one for that hot boy you like. You know, the one you’ve been secretly eyeing? Yeah him. Make him lemon cake and he is all yours. You’re welcome.
Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake
adapted from Dorie Greenspan via Joy the Baker
This recipe makes two cakes, to be baked in loaf pans. After reading the comments on Joy’s original post I wouldn’t try using anything other than loaf pans…they worked wonderfully for me.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2-1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 2-1/3 cups sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla
- 6 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
- 1 stick, plus 7 tbsp unsalted butter (15 tbsp total), melted and cooled
Syrup:
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- juice of two lemons
Directions
- Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9×5-inch loaf pans, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Even if the pans are nonstick, it’s a good idea to butter and flour them.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Put the sugar and the lemon zest in a large bowl, working with your fingers, rub them together until the sugar is moist and thoroughly imbued with the fragrance of lemon.
- Add the eggs and whisk them into the sugar, beating until they are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract, then whisk in the cream. Continuing with the whisk, or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions. Pour the batter into the pans, smoothing with a rubber spatula.
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. As soon as the cake goes into the oven, make the syrup. After about 30 minutes in the oven, check the cakes for color- if they are browning too quickly, cover them lightly with foil tents.
- Stir the water and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar melts, then bring to a boil. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl and let cool.
- When the cakes test done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding them and turning them right side up on the rack. Place the rack over a baking sheet lined with wax paper and, using a thin skewer, cake tester or thin-bladed sharp knife, poke holes all over the cakes. Brush the cakes all over with the syrup, working slowly so that the cakes sop it up. Leave the cakes on the rack to cool to room temperature.
Long weekends are my jam.
There is nothing like knowing you have an extra day to play with to make you want to let rip and run wild.
Even if “running wild” these days just means staying out til one at the karaoke bar or spending four hours in a restaurant drinking wine with food blogging friends…I never said I was super crazy.
But long weekends are still my jam.
These muffins were a product of this long weekend, so they are automatically awesome. Really though, poppy seeds? And lemons? How about poppy seeds, lemons and buttermilk all together? Crazy good stuff.
I am pleading with you to bake these little delights today. Because they’re good. Really good. Lemony and sweet but not cloyingly so and with this magical crunch from the seeds.
I ate three yesterday and am likely eating one for breakfast with a cup of tea as you read this. That is simply to say: you have been warned.
I chose to go sans glaze because I wanted something a little less sweet but I’ve included the recipe for that part because who am I to deny you lemon glaze?
Do ’em up.
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
via Joy the Baker
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk or sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted until browned and cooled
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping the batter before baking)
For the Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar whisked together with 2 or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
Directions
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12 mold, regular sized muffin tray with paper muffin liners, place the muffin pan on a baking sheet and set aside.
- In a large bowl, rub the granulated sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored and scented with lemon. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk (or sour cream) vanilla extract, melted butter and lemon juice.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together. When almost thoroughly mixed, add the poppy seeds. Divide batter between muffin cups. Sprinkle each would be muffing with granulated sugar.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
