One of the beautiful things about Arizona during the Spring is the abundance of citrus we have available to us. So many of my wonderful neighbors are willing to share their bounties with us in the form of lemons, oranges, grapefruit and tangerines. Recently on our family nightly walks one of our neighbors has a tree overgrowing with amazing tangerines, and he loved watching Anneliese’s eyes light up when he told her she could pick as many as she liked. Now after dinner every day she has gotten quite used to her desert of picking a fresh tangerine and eating it while she zooms down the street on her unicorn scooter.
With all of this deliciously fresh abundance, my girls and I whipped up a lemon pound cake last weekend that we just had to share with you!
Here are the ingredients you need:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
- 3 to 4 lemons
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Here are the Directions:
Pound cake
Preheat oven to 350°.
Butter a 9×4″ loaf pan, fully coating bottom and sides. Line pan lengthwise with parchment paper, leaving about a 2″ overhang. Seriously, don’t skip the parchment paper step!
Grate the zest from 3 to 4 lemons into a large bowl. I use a small handheld zester that easily peels off the zest in small pretty little miniature slices.
Halve 3 lemons (the ones you already zested) and squeeze the juice into a small bowl to get about 2 cups lemon juice. I used my Bosch juicer and so doing this was a breeze, but you can also just half the lemons and squeeze or ream the juice out with a fork.
Add the zest from about 2 lemons into a large bowl. Make sure to keep the rest of the zest for the the glaze topping.
Add 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted room temperature butter and 1 cup granulated sugar to a bowl.
Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Beat in 3 eggs one at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding the next.
Continue to beat until mixture is lighter and even fluffier, about 2 minutes.
Whisk 1¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1½ tsp. baking powder, and ½ tsp. salt in another large bowl.
Add one-half of dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined.
Beat in 6 Tbsp. milk on low just until smooth, then add remaining dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
Add in about 1/2 cup lemon juice to the batter and mix the juice through the batter.
Note: Once you add your flour be careful not to over mix and make your dough tough.
Scrape batter into your buttered and parchment lined loaf pan; smooth top with a spatula.
Bake cake at 350 for about 45 to 55 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean.
While the loaf is baking use that time to make your powdered sugar glaze.
Glaze
Add the zest from remaining the lemons to about ½ cup lemon juice and 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
Hand whisk and mix well.
Put the icing to the side until the cake has finished cooking.
Once the loaf is cooked and cooled for about 5 to minutes. Pour the icing over the top of the loaf. Let the glaze settle before removing the loaf.
Using a knife, gently go around the edges of the loaf and use the parchment paper to pull the loaf out of the pan.
Enjoy!
You probably have everything in your pantry right now to make this fresh, sweet and delicious recipe for an easy lemon pound cake!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
- 3 to 4 lemons
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 6 Tbsp. whole milk
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Pound cake Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Butter a 9x4" loaf pan, fully coating bottom and sides. Line pan lengthwise with parchment paper, leaving about a 2" overhang. Seriously, don't skip the parchment paper step!
- Grate the zest from 3 to 4 lemons into a large bowl. I use a small handheld zester that easily peels off the zest in small pretty little miniature slices.
- Halve 3 lemons (the ones you already zested) and squeeze the juice into a small bowl to get about 2 cups lemon juice. I used my Bosch juicer and so doing this was a breeze, but you can also just half the lemons and squeeze or ream the juice out with a fork.
- Add the zest from about 2 lemons into a large bowl. Make sure to keep the rest of the zest for the the glaze topping.
- Add 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted room temperature butter and 1 cup granulated sugar to a bowl.
- Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Beat in 3 eggs one at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding the next.
- Continue to beat until mixture is lighter and even fluffier, about 2 minutes.
- Whisk 1¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1½ tsp. baking powder, and ½ tsp. salt in another large bowl.
- Add one-half of dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined.
- Beat in 6 Tbsp. milk on low just until smooth, then add remaining dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
- Add in about 1/2 cup lemon juice to the batter and mix the juice through the batter.
- Note: Once you add your flour be careful not to over mix and make your dough tough.
- Scrape batter into your buttered and parchment lined loaf pan; smooth top with a spatula.
- Bake cake at 350 for about 45 to 55 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean.
- While the loaf is baking use that time to make your powdered sugar glaze.
- Glaze Directions:
- Add the zest from remaining the lemons to about ½ cup lemon juice and 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
- Hand whisk and mix well.
- Put the icing to the side until the cake has finished cooking.
- Once the loaf is cooked and cooled for about 5 to minutes. Pour the icing over the top of the loaf. Let the glaze settle before removing the loaf.
- Using a knife, gently go around the edges of the loaf and use the parchment paper to pull the loaf out of the pan.
- Enjoy!
Thanks for popping in! If you like fresh citrus recipes, here is another one you might want to check out.
Love,
Jen
