Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

Pound for Pound Cake

Ask most people why pound cake is called pound cake and they will guess that the pound part is how much weight you put on after eating a slice of this rich, moist cake. While that is funny, it’s not quite true. The real reason is that in the old days before cholesterol numbers became party banter, the recipe for pound cake was one pound of each ingredient. Admittedly, I would love to indulge in a cake that had a pound of butter and a pound of eggs in it, but I think I’ll save that craziness for retro cooking day.

Today’s recipe for pound cake is a bit more refined. This recipe for buttermilk lemon pound cake isn’t a diet food by a long shot, but has been worked out to give a better crumb and texture to the cake. I generally don’t keep buttermilk on hand at home but my recent crème fraiche experiments and a buttermilk biscuit foray left me with some spare buttermilk.

Be sure to sift the dry ingredients together. This not only removes unwanted lumps from the dry ingredients but also helps to distribute the leavening evenly throughout the batter. This is especially important with this recipe because we are not going to be mixing the batter very much at all. The less you mix this batter the better, but be sure to thoroughly incorporate all the ingredients. I know that sounds contradictory, but when you see that all the dry and the wet ingredients are mixed, stop mixing.

Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 8 ounces butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon lemon extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest

Instructions

1. Preheat yout oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. Mix the buttermilk and lemon extract together.
4. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time until completely incorporated.
6. Add the lemon zest.
7. Alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients, adding one third of each and waiting until they are completely incorporated to add the next third.
8. Once all ingredients are mixed in, stop mixing and pour into a prepared cake pan.
9. To prepare the cake pan, spray it with non-stick spray and then line with parchment paper. Then, spray it again with non-stick spray.
10. Bake for one hour or until done.

The Glaze

Ingredients

• 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of milk

Instructions

1. Mix with a whisk or the whisk attachment of your stand mixer until smooth.
2. If the glaze is too loose, add more sugar.
3. If too stiff, add more milk.
4. This is a glaze, so it is supposed to be looser than an icing but not too watery.