Citrusy Pound Cake

Grease and FLOUR the pan... REALLY. You will be very very sorry if you don't flour it. Trust me on this. Especially if you have one of these beautifully detailed cathedral-like bundt pans. This little extra step will determine whether you serve cake or trifle to your guests...

Citrusy Pound Cake

Adapted from this recipe at pithy and cleaver

For the cake:
2 ¾ C sugar
1 C butter
6 Lg eggs
3 C flour

½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
1 C Greek yogurt or sour cream
½ tsp lemon juice
1 tsp orange extract
¼ tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon

For the glaze:
1 C. powdered sugar
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
juice of 1-2 lemons
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rack in middle position of oven.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the yogurt or sour cream.

Sift together the flour, salt and soda; and add to creamed mixture one cup at a time. Beat well after each addition. Next, add the extract, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.

Pour into a greased and floured 10” tube pan or Bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until cake tests done. Cool 10-15 minutes (no more), then turn out onto a cake rack to finish cooling.

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl, add the lemon juice and corn syrup and whisk together until smooth. Spoon glaze over the top of the cake and sprinkle lemon zest on top before the glaze sets.

My Notes (June 13, 2009): See rant above regarding pan prep. Beautiful cake. Used sour cream since my yogurt never set up today. Lovely cake. Baked for an extra 5-10 minutes. Just wish it had come out of the pan in one piece. We'll be making a trifle with this one. Oh who am I kidding? We're happily going to eat the hunks of cake plain. We won't be serving it to guests though...

My Notes (June 14, 2009): Baked second cake, greasing AND flouring the pan like crazy this time. Needed an extra 12 minutes in the oven. Cooled for exactly 10 minutes in pan. Released perfectly! Yippee! Double the glaze next time. Try to incorporate a little more citrus flavor in the cake: lemon juice instead of extract? in addition to? Hmm. Didn't really taste the orange extract. Either punch up the orange or omit it. Maybe add O zest? Replace O extract with OJ concentrate? Add O flower water? Cointreau? MMMmmmm (can't wait to try again)!

*Photo by Connie