Lemon Pound Cake

My maiden attempt at lemon cake!

I've always wanted a recipe for a lemon cake. It's just one of the standard cakes you get at almost every German potluck. 

Hence, when my friend brought her home-baked lemon pound cake for playgroup the other day, I simply had to try her recipe, especially cos it tasted SOO good and it was from Martha Steward!

This recipe is superb! The cake is so light, fluffy and moist. I've not tried any other lemon cake recipes, so I can't tell if this is the best recipe, but it's definitely very good!

The preparation is not the fastest though, cos you'd have to mix the dough by adding one egg at a time. But other than that, we were so satisfied with the recipe that we ended up baking it twice in a span of 4 days! 

The original recipe stated that recipe is enough for 2 cakes, but we found that it was more suitable for 1.5 cakes. We like our cakes big you see. 

A word of caution though. The baking time varies. The first time I baked the cake, it ended up perfect. However, the second time I baked it, the bottom part got burnt - which could be because we over-heated the oven to begin with or perhaps we accidentally placed the cake directly on the bottom of the oven instead of putting it on the last rack. 

In any case, the next time we bake it, we would simply put the cake in the middle of the oven and watch the cake after about 40 minutes to ensure that the top does not get burn. 

The original recipe states all the ingredients in the U.S. cup system, so I've taken the liberty to convert everything to the metric system. 

Ingredients:-

Small bowl 
- 190 grams Buttermilk
- Fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)
- Lemon zest (from 3 lemons), finely-grated

Medium bowl
- 420 grams Flour
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 0.5 tsp Baking powder
- 0.5 tsp Baking soda

Large bowl
- 225 grams unsalted Butter, softened
- 400 grams Sugar
- 5 large Eggs

Lemon glaze
- 250 grams Icing sugar
- Fresh lemon juice (4 tbsp) 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, with rack in the middle. Line baking tin. 

2. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, fresh lemon juice and lemon zest. 

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

4. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric mixer.

5.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 

6. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts, alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour. Beat until just smooth (do not overmix). 

7. Place batter in baking tin and bake for 50 minutes or until done (check by inserting a toothpick in the center and see if it comes out clean). If cake is browning too quickly, cover with aluminium foil. Cool cake completely before glazing. 

8. Prepare lemon glaze by mixing icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Adjust the consistency by either adding more lemon juice or more sugar. Glaze should be thick, yet pourable. 

8. Glaze cake with lemon glaze. Let it dry (about 30 minutes) before eating.

Adapted from original recipe here.