Ingredients
- Pound Cake
- Pound cake is such a great old fashioned dessert and in the summer I love to serve it with fresh berries macerated with sugar so it makes a nice syrup to soak into the cake and top it off with whipped cream. Sometimes I add orange liquor or raspberry liquor to the berries. This cake can serve up to 12-14 people and also freezes well so you can have a quick dessert on hand. You can bake it in a Bundt pan or a loaf pan. For the glaze I used Meyer lemons which have a wonderful sweet and bitter orange flavor to drizzle on top of the cake but you can also use Eureka lemons, oranges, grapefruit, or limes which are more readily available. You can also add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and zest of half a lemon to the pound cake to make it lemon flavored.
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) butter – room temperature, plus more for the pan
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 3 large eggs + 3 large yolks, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder (optional)
- 1 ¾ cups cake flour, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon Meyer lemon zest
- 3 1/2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
Instructions
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan or a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
In a standing mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter and salt at medium high speed until shiny, smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl once with a rubber spatula. Reduce the speed to medium with the mixer running, gradually pour in the sugar (this should take about 60 seconds). Once all the sugar is added, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white in color, 5 to 8 minutes, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl once. With the mixer running at medium speed, gradually add the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream; this should take 60 to 90 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl; beat the mixture at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes (the mixture may look slightly broken.) Remove the bowl from the mixer; scrape the bottom and sides.
In 3 additions, add the flour over the butter/egg mixture; after each addition, fold gently with a rubber spatula until combined. Scrape along the bottom of the bowl to ensure that the batter is homogeneous.
Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. Bake until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 70 to 80 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes; invert the cake onto a wire rack, then turn the cake right side up. Cool the cake on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.
Glaze: In a small mixing bowl, add powdered sugar, zest and juice and mix well until smooth. It should be the consistency of half and half. Add more juice or powdered sugar for desired consistency. Drizzle glaze over completely cooled pound cake and allow to set for 1 hour before serving.
Slice and serve. This pound cake also freezes well.
