Lemon Pound Cake

So I've been on this lemon kick and have made all sorts of lemony delicious desserts in the last week or so.  I got this lemon pound cake recipe from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook I have.  This is the first pound cake I've made.  It turned out fantastic.  I'd say out of all the lemon desserts I've made in the last week or so this one by far was the best.  The cake was super moist and had such a great tartness to it from the lemon. I'd say the level of lemon in it from the cake itself to the glaze and icing was perfect.  My husband gets lemon pound cake everywhere we go that has it as it is one of his favorites.  He said this one was by far the best he has ever had.  So this will definitely be something we make again in this house.  The only real thing I changed from the recipe was the recipe said this made 2 separate cakes but I added it all to one pan and felt the size was perfect.  I think adding it into two separate pans the cakes would be too thin.  

Lemon Pound Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp.
2 1/2 c. sugar
4 large eggs, room temp.
1/3 c. grated lemon zest (6-8 large lemons)
3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 c.  freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
 

Simple Syrup:

1/2 c. water

1/2 c. sugar

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
3 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a loaf pan. You may also line the bottom with parchment paper.  I did because I have sticking problems if I don't.  Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and the lemon zest.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. When the cake is done, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and set it on a rack set over a tray or sheet pan.  Poke holes all over it with a skewer before pouring syrup to allow the syrup to get into the cake.  Just don't poke the holes through the cake completely.  Spoon the lemon syrup over it. Allow the cake to cool completely.   For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and the lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the cake and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides.

Lemon Bars

I've never tried lemon bars before but have been on a lemon kick this week and decided to give them a shot.  I found that most people really liked the Barefoot Contessa version of lemon bars and since I always find that Ina's recipes turn out really well decided to try these.  I found a slightly modified version of this recipe on Smitten Kitchen decreasing the lemon filling to make a more 1:1 ration between the filling and crust and thought that'd work better for what I was looking for.  I was not disappointing.  These bars were fantastic.  They had such a nice lemon punch to them but were still sweet and the shortbread crust was just awesome.  If you love lemons then this is definitely something you want to try.  

Shortbread Crust:

2 sticks unsalted room temp. butter

1/2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

1/8 tsp. salt

Lemon Filling:

4 large eggs, room temp.

1 2/3 c. sugar

1 1/2 tbsp. lemon zest (3-4 lemons)

2/3 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice

2/3 c. flour

Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 pan.  You may want to even grease the pan, add parchment paper to the bottom and sides to pull out the bars when cooled and grease the parchment.  For the crust start by creaming the butter and sugar in the mixer with paddle attachment.  Add in the flour and salt and mix until just combined.  It'll look crumbly.  Pour onto a hard surface and push it all together to get it into a rough ball.  Then put into your pan and push it down to form the crust.  You'll want about 1/2 inch around the edges.  Go ahead and chill for about 20 minutes.  Then bake until light brown, roughly 15 minutes.  Leave the oven on but let the crust start to cool while you make the lemon filling.  Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour until completely combined.  Pour over the crust and bake about 25 minutes or to the point where the filling is just set.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then dust the top with a generous layer of powdered sugar.  Cut into bars or triangles.  

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Lemon Yogurt Cake

This is the first time I've made this cake.  I've been craving lemony things the last few days so wanted to try some new lemon desserts.  I wanted something similar to a pound cake but without all the butter and figured with yogurt this would be a better option. It was awesome though I would do things a bit different next time.  I jumped the gun totally and didn't allow the cake to cool before trying to cut it.  What, I was hungry!  So not only did it fall apart but that ruined basically all pictures I could take of it too.  Once I allowed it to cool though the rest of it cut nicely.  So I'd suggest to wait until this cake cools completely before digging in. Plus I ran out of parchment paper so I just greased my pan.  The bottom stuck and ripped parts off.  Next time, I'd make sure I had the parchment down to prevent that since this is quite a sticky cake.  The glaze didn't get into the cake enough either so I'd use a skewer and put some holes all throughout the top next time before pouring the glaze over.  I used canola oil instead of vegetable oil just because canola oil is a healthier oil for you.  I had low-fat plain yogurt on hand so that is what I used, but you can certainly use whole milk yogurt if you rather.  All in all, really tasty.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

1 1/2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. plain yogurt 

1 c. sugar 

3 large eggs

1 tbsp. lemon zest (3-4 lemons)

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. canola oil

Simple Syrup:

1/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. lemon juice

Glaze:

1 c. powdered sugar

2 tbsp. lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.  Then make sure to grease and flour the parchment paper and rest of the pan.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 c. of sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil.  Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet.  Pour the batter in the loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until a knife is inserted and comes out clean (sharp knife or skewer not a butter knife).  Set the cake aside to start to cool while making the simple syrup consisting of 1/3 c. of lemon juice and 1/3 c. of sugar.  Heat on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup starts to look more clear.  Take the cake out of the loaf pan and place on a serving platter or cooling rack and use a skewer to poke holes in it so the syrup will penetrate more of the cake.  Don't poke through the cake, just into it. Then pour over the syrup.  Do this 10-20 minutes after the cake comes out of the oven, when it is still warm but not too hot.   Once cooled completely pour the glaze over the cake.  Just combine the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp. of lemon juice and pour.  

Enjoy!  

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Old Fashioned Lemonade

I love lemonade but anytime I buy lemonade in a bottle or as a fountain drink somewhere I am always extremely disappointed.  It just isn't the same as the good homemade lemonade I use to get in restaurants when I lived in South Carolina.  This is such a simple recipe but so good with lots of nice lemon tang.  If you have the time you can juice fresh lemons for this or just use the bottled lemon juice.  If using fresh lemons though you'll need a good bit of them to make an entire pitcher of lemonade, anywhere from 10-14 lemons depending on how much juice you get from each.  

Old Fashioned Lemonade


10-12 c. water
2 c. sugar
2 c. lemon juice


You start by making a lemon simple syrup.  This consists of just equal water, lemon juice and sugar.  So you add in the 2 c. water, 2 c. sugar and 2 c. of the lemon juice into a saucepan and bring to a simmer just until the sugar is completely dissolved then turn off.  Add into a 1 gallon pitcher and fill with remaining water (which usually is about 8-10 c. of cold water) and just put in the fridge for a few hours to cool off.  I always like to garnish mine with fresh lemon slices just for the extra lemonade feeling and because it looks pretty.