Lemon Pound Loaf Cake with Lemon Drizzle - Renuka George
When I bake for me, there’s almost always chocolate involved. Baking for me feels like cheeky indulgence, but baking for my mum is an entirely different thing. Anything I make for my mum is made of simple, nostalgic flavours involving fruit or citrus or maybe even some spice. A loaf of something, or delicious little bars or even a bundt that she’ll place in an age-old cake tin and ration over several days with afternoon tea and her favourite show on TV. Baking for mum triggers a memory or creates a new story and it’s something I wish I could do more often. This beautifully moist and buttery lemon pound cake is one of my mum’s favourites and I’m so excited to share it with all of you amazing mums and daughters today. Happy Mother’s Day baking.
INGREDIENTS
1 and ½ cups of all purpose flour
½ teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
175 grams of butter (unsalted and at room temp)
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs - these need to be at room temperature too for an even rise on the cake.
60 grams sour cream (you could also use greek yoghurt)
The zest of a whole lemon
The juice of a whole lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the drizzle:
1 cup icing sugar sifted
1 and ½ tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon heavy or whipping cream*
*You can omit the whipping cream but then you’ll have a translucent drizzle. The cream increases the opacity and makes the drizzle and luxurious white.
Variations:
- You could use the zest and juice of a whole orange if you want an orange pound cake.
- You can add 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds in your batter for a lemon poppy version.- This recipe works best in a loaf pan, I wouldn't use a round pan, it makes the cake too dense. But you could make a bundt cake by doubling all the ingredients except the sour cream. Use 180grams of sour cream/yoghurt for added moisture.
METHOD
Grease your loaf pan and get your oven up to 180 degrees celsius.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy.
Add sugar and beat again on high for 2 minutes until creamed. Keep scraping down the sides and bottom as needed.
With the mixer running on low speed, add the eggs one at a time. Once all the eggs are completely mixed in, stop the mixer.
Add the sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, then beat on medium speed until combined. Again, scrape the bowl as needed.
The mixture may look like it has split at this stage - not to worry, it will come together when you add the dry ingredients.
Next, keep your mixer on low and slowly add the flour mixture just until combined. If you’ve still got lumps, use a spatula and mix by hand, you really want to avoid over-mixing at this stage. If using poppy seeds, add at this stage and mix in by hand. Batter should be thick and not easy to pour.
Spoon it all into prepared loaf tin and bake. In my oven this takes 40-45 minutes. But every oven is different so start checking at 30 mins. It’s also perfectly normal for it to take much longer - pound cakes usually do. When it’s done, it’ll still have a few crumbs on the toothpick when you check.
Take it out and cool on a wire rack but still in the pan for about an hour. Then remove and place on a serving plate. You can add the drizzle now while it’s still warm or when it’s completely cooled.
For the drizzle, all you need to do is whisk everything by hand. Enjoy a good taste-lick and awaken your taste buds before you do anything with it! How good is that? Once you’ve poured your drizzle on the cake, you can grate some more zest over the top or add coconut or almond flakes for texture.
Slice up when fully cool and serve with your favourite tea.
Recipe by Renuka George
Renuka is married to Sparkie and they have two beautiful children, Tobias and Selah. She is on team at Kingdomcity.