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Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

February 21st, 2011

As promised last week, I’m giving you the recipe for that Meyer Lemon Pound Cake I made for our Super Bowl party. I used Ina Garten‘s recipe, as she never lets me down. I love that her recipes always uses real ingredients: butter, cream, eggs, olive oil, fresh lemon zest, freshly squeezed juice and fresh vegetables. I always love leafing through her many cookbooks; The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients are two of my favorites.

Traditionally pound cake was made with a pound of: butter, flour, eggs and sugar. Since leavening wasn’t used in a traditional pound cake all ingredients had to be mixed by hand until light and fluffy, this provided the texture of the cake. Of course now days we have mixers and baking soda and baking powder, so we don’t have to worry about spending an hour mixing all the ingredients until they’re light and fluffy.

This lemon juicer was my grandma’s, my mom’s mom. My mom saved this and gave this to me for Christmas this year. I was happy to pull it out and use it when making this cake. Of course these Meyer lemons are the ones I ordered from the Lemon Ladies Orchard.

This recipe can easily be halved, which I needed for our Super Bowl party because I only had 2 eggs lef. A lot of pound cake recipes use 5 eggs, which makes it difficult to halve the recipe. I baked it in one of my cast iron bread pans, which I’d highly recommend as it does a fabulous job of baking the cake and I didn’t have to use parchment because the cast iron is well seasoned.

MEYER LEMON POUND CAKE
adapted from Ina Garten’s Lemon Pound Cake recipe

For the cake:
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted room temperature butter
2 cups sugar
4 extra-large room temperature eggs
1/3 cup grated Meyer lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used freshly ground white wheat with some of the bran sifted out)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
3/4 cup room temperature buttermilk (you can sub a mix of half yogurt half whole milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the syrup:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

For the glaze:
2 cups sifter confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 1/2-by-4 1/4-by-2 1/2-inch loaf pans, and line the bottoms with parchment paper or use a bundt pan of a 9 x 13 pan.

2. Cream butter and 2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Mixing at medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, and lemon zest.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Add flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to butter and sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Divide batter evenly between pans, smooth tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

4. Combine 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves.

5. When cakes are done, let them cool 10 minutes. Invert them onto a rack set over a tray, and spoon lemon syrup over cakes. Let cakes cool completely.

6. For glaze, combine confectioners’ sugar and remaining 3 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a whisk until smooth. Pour over top of cakes, and allow glaze to drizzle down the sides.


The first time I baked this cake in 2 cast iron bread pans, I’ve also baked it in a bundt pan and a glass 9 x 13 pan. I use freshly ground white winter wheat for my loaves, I sifted out some of the bran. If you don’t sift out the bran you’ll have to add a little bit more flour to get the right texture of batter.

This cake is really delicious, perfect for pairing with coffee. It has the perfect lemon flavor since it’s layered into every part of the recipe, from the zest and lemon juice in the cake batter, to the lemon juice in the syrup and the glaze. If you love lemon, this is the cake for you! And I LOVE lemon, so this is probably my most favorite cake. I think it would be even better studded with some fresh blueberries or black raspberries, which I’m going to have to remember next time I bake one. Another thing I love about this recipe is that there’s no icing, I’m not an icing person, the glaze is just right (although I often skip it and just do the syrup when making it for us at home).

What’s your favorite flavor of cake? Are you an icing lover?

20 Comments to “Meyer Lemon Pound Cake”
  1. Teresa Rawlings on February 21, 2011 at 7:43 am

    The lemon pound cake looks yummy. I love anything with strawberries but the lemon sure might change my mind. hehe.

    Can’t wait to try the recipe. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply to Teresa Rawlings's comment

  2. alecia on February 21, 2011 at 9:49 am

    will try this recipe- agree with you-blueberries would make a great addition.

    fav cake- any kind of pound cake and carrot cake. prefer cake to frosting- dislike fondant, prefer buttercream or light glazes

    Reply to alecia's comment

  3. goatpod2 on February 21, 2011 at 10:13 am

    That looks delicious! I like most cakes, I’m not much of a icing person.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  4. Kelly on February 21, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Any kind of cake that includes fresh, in-season fruit is my favorite! This yummy cake is on my list to bake this week! I am absolutely LOVING my beautiful Meyer Lemons! Thank you so much! I just baked a delicious batch of Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cookies last week, and am hoping to make Ina’s cake and my first batch of lemon marmalade this week. It will actually be my first try at canning, so wish me luck! Thanks for all the inspiration you provide!!

    Kelly

    Reply to Kelly's comment

  5. Daedre Craig on February 21, 2011 at 11:45 am

    Mmmm looks good. I especially like the photo with the huge glob of butter!

    Reply to Daedre Craig's comment

  6. Rhonda on February 21, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    Your butter is so yellow, did you make it yourself?

    Reply to Rhonda's comment

    • Susy on February 21, 2011 at 1:07 pm

      This actually isn’t homemade butter (mine is even more yellow). This is from local pastured cows though. We have a small local dairy that makes it, during the summer months when the grass is green and the cows are out on pasture, the butter is beautifully golden. I always stock up during that time, that way I have grass-fed butter to use all winter long (I freeze the butter). It comes in 2 pound rolls.

      In the winter when the cows are being fed hay the butter is a much lighter yellow, never quite as white as store bought butter though that’s from cows that sadly never see a blade of grass.

      You can probably find a small local dairy that you can purchase this kind of butter from, LocalHarvest.org is a good resource as is EatWild.com. It’s well worth the time to find a dairy and well worth the price not just because it’s healthier but also the taste is outstanding!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Lynda on February 21, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    Thank you! Thank you! We’ve had temperatures drop down to freezing the last two days and I had to go out and pick all of my Meyer Lemons or chance loosing them. I’m juicing them today: making lemon curd and now your lovely pound cake…the other GALLONS of juice will be frozen for this summer’s lemonade and other delicious lemon treats.

    Reply to Lynda's comment

    • Susy on February 21, 2011 at 1:23 pm

      So jealous that you have “gallons” of juice to enjoy all summer long!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Vivian on February 21, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Your cake looks wonderful and I’m going to order some Meyer lemons and make one. I have a lemon pound cake recipe that hubby likes but this one looks much better. I’m with you…I’m in Ina Garten fan!

    Reply to Vivian's comment

  9. MAYBELLINE on February 21, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    My favorite cake to bake AND eat is a lemon cream cheese pound cake.

    Reply to MAYBELLINE's comment

  10. Laurrie on February 21, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    Mmmm, lemon, I can’t get enough, and this one is a good recipe because the lemon is through and through.

    I nominated your blog for a “Stylish Blogger” award… check out my post, and if you haven’t done this meme already, you can participate by posting 7 things about yourself and a list of 15 stylish blogs you like. Or not. I do like reading your blog (and it is stylish!)

    Reply to Laurrie's comment

  11. Morgan G on February 21, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    I love citrus-y cakes. Lemon is always a winner. Key Lime Poundcake is a special treat, too.

    By the way, Susy, I received my seeds! Thank you so much. I’ll keep you posted on progress.

    Reply to Morgan G's comment

  12. Nicole on February 21, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    I love that so many people are posting about Karen’s lemons. Another recipe to add to the list for the next box for sure.

    Reply to Nicole's comment

  13. Renee on February 21, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    oh. my. yum!

    Reply to Renee's comment

  14. margaret on February 21, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    Ina rocks. Her recipes are seldom complicated and made with good simple ingredients that are easy to find or have on hand. I’ve made several of her recipes and they always, always turn out.

    Reply to margaret's comment

  15. trashmaster46 on February 21, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    Our favorite pound cake is Maida Heater’s lemon/ginger/white pepper pound cake. My husband, who almost never has dessert, will eat two pieces of this. I even took second place at my state fair last year with this recipe!
    http://www.grouprecipes.com/69175/maida-heaters-white-pepper-and-ginger-lemon-cake.html

    Reply to trashmaster46's comment

  16. Jaspenelle on February 22, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    Oh. My. Goodness. I just made this and it is divine. So so so yummy!

    Reply to Jaspenelle's comment

  17. Jean on February 23, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    Your post caught my eye because I wrote a post on my blog a couple of weeks ago about growing meyer lemons indoors in my living room. Meyers are so delicious – the only lemons I use when I can get them. They’re so tender that they don’t last long, so I’m constantly on the hunt for good sources when they’re off season.
    My mother-in-law used to make a wonderful pound cake that we loved! We always kept one in the freezer so we would never run out. In the morning, my kids would cut a slice and put it in the toaster-oven. It made a terrific substitute for plain old toast.
    Thanks for this post with the beautiful pix. I agree – Ina is a wonderful cook and so charming and down-to-earth.Being a personal friend of hers is definitely on my bucket list.

    Reply to Jean's comment

  18. Donna on August 16, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    This is the absolute best recipe! I have made it several times and can’t keep it in the house. The girls at the office went crazy over it – you must try this. You wont be disappointed!!!

    Reply to Donna's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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