I’m not a big cake fan. I have found that in the last few years whenever I have a choice, I never pick cake as a dessert or treat option. But this may be one of the few that I really like and often go back to again and again. It could be that pound cakes generally do not have frosting although some have icing on them. When they do have icing, I always remove it and just enjoy the cake by itself, or heat my slice up in the oven to get a nice and crispy edge and add a scoop of ice cream. Yum! I’m almost salivating just thinking about it.
So if you are a fan of pound cakes, try this recipe and let me know what you think.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour,
Baking powder and
Salt.
Whisk all the dry ingredients together and then set aside.
In a small bowl, add the poppy seeds and flour. So for this recipe I used white poppy seeds. But I learned that I do not like white poppy seeds. I am a black poppy seeds kinda gal. But feel free to use which ever color you like.
Mix well and set aside.
In a food processor, add the sugar,
Lemon zest,
Lemon juice,
Eggs,
Vanilla and
With the food processor running, add the melted butter until well combined.
Pour the egg mixture into a large bowl.
Sift flour mixture over the egg mixture in three steps, whisking gently after each addition until just combined. Fold poppy seed mixture into batter after flour is incorporated.
Pour batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake for 12 to 16 minutes.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire rack.
Once the cake(s) has cooled, you can glaze it. I generally don’t like like glaze on my cakes, so I did not make it for this recipe. But I did include the recipe for those who like glaze.
Lemon Poppy Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter plus 1 tablespoon, softened, for greasing pan,
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour plus 1 tablespoon for dusting pan,
- 1/3 cup poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Lemon Glaze
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice from 1 or 2 medium lemons
- cup ¼lemon juice from 1 or 2 medium lemons
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with 1 tablespoon softened butter; dust with 1 tablespoon cake flour, tapping out excess. For this recipe, I actually used mini loaf pans: 5.5 by 3-inch.
- In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- Toss 1 tablespoon flour mixture and poppy seeds in small bowl, set aside.
- In glass measuring cup or microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter, covered with plastic wrap, at full power until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. (Alternatively, melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat.)
- Whisk melted butter thoroughly to re-incorporate any separated milk solids.
- In a food processor, process sugar and zest until combined, about five 1-second pulses.
- Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla; process until combined, about 5 seconds.
- With machine running, add melted butter through feed tube in steady stream (this should take about 20 seconds).
- Transfer mixture to large bowl.
- Sift flour mixture over eggs in three steps, whisking gently after each addition until just combined.
- Fold poppy seed mixture into batter after flour is incorporated.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 15 minutes.
- Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and continue to bake until deep golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire rack.
- While cake is cooling in pan, make lemon glaze (if using). Bring sugar and lemon juice to boil in small nonreactive saucepan, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.
- Brush on or pour lemon glaze. Cool to room temperature, at least 1 hour. (Cooled cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.)