Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
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?
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Quote of the Day: Wesley Bates
There’s no need for a piece of sculpture
in a home that has a cat.
~Wesley Bates
We love all of our cats, they provide so much entertainment and give us lots of laughs.
Even Miss Mama and Little Softie the garage cats bring us lots of joy. We took Little Softie in to get spayed this past week, she seems to be going well. Hopefully she’ll live a long happy life in the Chiot’s Run garage.
I’m definitely a cat person, I love cats, always have. We almost always had cats in the house while I was growing up and Mr Chiots and I have had pet cats for most of our married lives. We’ll probably always have them. I’m not as much of a dog person as I am a cat person though, if I had to choose one I’d choose cats (shhhh, don’t tell the resident Chiots, the namesake of the garden).
Are you a cat or a dog person?
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Solar Dryer Back Up and Running
It’s been so nice the past couple days (in the high 50’s & low 60’s) I washed and dried a few loads of laundry – outside, on the line.
This is what my clothesline looked like a few weeks ago when that big ice storm came through.
Yesterday it was lined with kitchen towels and rags instead of ice. It’s going to get cold again, but I think I’ll have at least one warm day each week I can plan to line dry on that day.
It’s always a good feeling when you can line dry the clothes again. The towels smelled so fresh when I folded them after they had dried. There’s just something about the laundry when the sun and the wind dry them.
Do you line dry any laundry? Can you do it all year long?
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Friday Favorite: My Calendar + a Winner
I must say that now one of my favorite things is making a calendar with some of my photos. I don’t print off any of my photos, they all live on my hard drive and I look through them for blog posts, or when organizing. I want to pick out a few to get nice canvas prints of – but I can never decide which ones to get. One of the reasons I like my calendar is because it reminds me of what I did the previous year and it’s a great way for me to print out a few of my photos and share them with family members.
I order 10 of these and give them away at Christmas and keep one for myself. Everyone was thrilled to get theirs again this year and I’m sure they’ll be excited next year as well. I’ve already pulled out photos for the months of January & February for next year’s calendar.
After wrapping up all the calendars I was giving away, I was left with an extra. I kept meaning to hold a contest on the blog, but keep forgetting – until NOW. Comment below and you’ll be entered to win a 2011 Chiot’s Run Calendar. Winner chosen: Nebraska Dave. One of the things I realized while looking through my calendars is that I LOVE living somewhere with distinct seasons. I’ve been trying to think of my favorite month and I’d have to say that May is. Fresh strawberries, spinach, lettuces, warm sun, great weather, what’s not to love?
What’s your favorite month of the year and why?
The Captain’s Wife has won a jar Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. Her comment was so great, I love the story. Head on over to her blog to read more about her life as a Navy Captain’s Wife. (if you haven’t received my e-mail use the contact button to the right to send me your address)
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The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far…
I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that my parents are avid gardeners, particularly my mom. She can spend all day, every day, all summer long working in the garden, and she has the gardens to prove it. Growing up our home was always full of houseplants as well, many of the interesting tropical varieties. I was visiting my mom last week and noticed that her big elephant ear houseplant is blooming.
It’s a HUGE plant, taking up an entire corner in the dining room. My nieces and nephews love it, and it’s been the inspiration for a number of drawings I’ve seen them make. It is a really lovely plant, not your typical houseplant, but right at home in my mom’s house with rather tall ceilings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these in anyone else’s home.
She has a sucker from it that she’s going to give me, it should do well in my house because these plants can take the low light. I’m just hoping it doesn’t get to big because my home is a lot smaller than my mom’s. I do love have interesting plants indoors, they cure the winter doldrums especially this time of year when I’m just itching to get outside and can’t
What’s the most interesting houseplant you’ve seen?
