Lemon Pound Cake
At Cookies & Conversations, we love buildable ingredients and multifunctional food, and our Lemon Pound Cake is just that! This lemon pound cake recipe is one that we love to share. Brighten the most dreary of moods with a bright slice of sunshine on a plate!
Ingredients - Cake
190 g All Purpose Flour (1 ½ cup)
6 g Baking Powder (1 tsp)
4 g Kosher Salt (½ tsp)
230 g Unsalted Butter (1 cup)
200 g Sugar (1 cup)
3 large eggs
60 g Sour Cream (¼ cup)
43 g Lemon Juice (3 Tbls)
Zest of 2 lemons
10 g Vanilla Extract (2 ½ tsp)
Ingredients - Icing
150 g Confectioner’s Sugar (1 ¼ cup)
22 g Lemon Juice (1.5 Tbls)
8 g Vanilla Extract (1 ½ tsp)
15 g Heavy Cream (1 Tbls)
Directions
Mise en Place all ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (325ºF if using a convection oven). Line a Loaf pan with parchment paper. Set to the side. If you do not have Parchment Paper on hand butter the sides of the loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt. Whisk the dry ingredients and set to the side.
In the bowl of the stand mixer, add your butter and with a paddle attachment, whip butter on high speed for about one minute. It should be light yellow in color, smooth, and creamy.
Add in the granulated sugar. Start mixer on slow to combine, then turn on high for about 2 minutes. You’re adding air to the mixture aiding in the lift. Turn off and scrape the sides of the bowl and bottom.
Turning the mixer on low speed, add in one egg at a time with the Vanilla. When all 3 eggs added, turn up to medium speed for about 30 seconds until the mixture is smooth. Add in the sour cream & Lemon Juice. Mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides. The batter may look a little separated due to the acidic items added. Once dry ingredients are added, everything will come together.
Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Do not mix more than that. You’ll begin to activate the gluten in the flour which can make your cake tough. The batter will be thick. Take the bowl off of the stand mixer and using your spatula, fold the batter while turning the bowl 3-4 times, making sure you get out any major lumps.
Fill your loaf pan with the batter, scraping all you can out with the spatula. Run spatula over top. Tap the bottom of the pan against the counter top to distribute air bubbles.
Bake loaf for 45 to 60 min. At about 30 min, turn the pan to account for hot spots and add an aluminum foil tent to prevent over browning on the top. The cake is done when a knife inserted comes out mostly clean. A few crumbs are okay.
Remove cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool*. Let rest for an hour and then remove cake from the pan and place on a serving plate. This is a great time to add icing if you’d like to add icing.
*if without a wire rack, and upside down muffin tin works great.
Pour Confectioner's sugar into a small bowl. Add lemon juice first and begin mixing with rubber spatula. It may be a bit lumpy as you begin to add the liquids. Add in Vanilla. Continue to mix. The icing should begin to smooth out. FInally add the heavy cream. Add more lemon juice as needed to reach the desired thickness.
