Let's Eat Cake: Lemon Pound Cake

I love lemon anything. Cake. Cookies. Whatever.  I found a recipe and modified it and this was the outcome.  I gave our neighbors half of the cake, so I wouldn't eat it all, and they proclaimed it the best lemon cake they'd ever had.  You be the judge. It really WAS pretty awesome.  It is a basic cake that you can add any kind of extract and make it your own.  Enjoy.

Lemon Pound Cake

 For the Cake:

1 Cup of butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1 Cup of Crisco
3 Cups of Sugar
6 Large Eggs at room temperature
1 Cup of Evaporated Milk
3 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 Tablespoons of Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons of Lemon Extract (or whatever extract you choose)
1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest

Juice from 2 lemons

For the Glaze: 
2 Cups of Powdered Sugar
Juice of 2 Fresh Lemons

1 Teaspoon grated lemon zest

NOTE: I used a KitchenAid stand mixer. I also used a vintage cast aluminum Bundt pan and it works great, just be sure it’s a large enough one to accommodate the batter. An Angel Food Cake pan also works nicely. This is a heavy batter. 

Preheat oven to 300F with the rack in the middle of the oven.  Grease and dust pan with flour. Do not get lazy and spray it. USe Crisco or butter. Lots of it and flour the heck out of it.  You wil thank me when it unmolds really easily.  You will curse if you don't and it sticks. Trust me. Been there. Done that.

Start by creaming the butter and shortening together until well mixed.  Add the sugar and mix until the mixture is a pale yellow.

Add these in this order to the mixing bowl and mix well until smooth: Eggs , Evaporated Milk , Vanilla Extract , Lemon Extract , Lemon Juice, Lemon Zest

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to the wet mixture, on a medium low speed, one cup at a time until all incorporated and lump free. 

Pour the batter into the greased and floured cake pan.  Place the cake pan on a baking sheet and place it on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

NOTE:  Any extracts are easy to use as a substitution for the lemon extract. Eliminate the extract if you want a plain pound cake.

For a Chocolate Pound cake you will need: 
2 Tablespoons of vanilla extract
6 Tablespoons of cocoa
Reduce flour to 3 Cups

Prepare the lemon glaze: 

Whisk together all the ingredients for the glaze and set aside.

Check for doneness – I used a metal skewer. The top of the cake should be browned and cracked. Electric ovens may need another 10 - 15 minutes. Mine came up about ½” higher than the top of the Bundt pan.

If the cake is done: DON'T TAKE IT OUT OF THE OVEN YET. Turn off the oven and let the cake sit in the oven for another 10 minutes. This helps the cake to form more of a crunch to the crust.

Remove the cake and sit on a cooling rack.  Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before you gently shake it and then invert and transfer onto a cool plate..

While the cake is still hot, use a skewer to make holes all over the cake (a butter knife works great too) and pour the lemon glaze over the cake.. 

Now let the cake cool.  I like this when kept in the refrigerator because I like cold desserts.  It gets pretty dense in the refrigerator too. This is also awesome right out of the oven.  If refrigerated, cut the slice and let it sit at room temp for about 15 minutes – if you can wait that long. I never can.