LEMON SYRUP SOAKED, WHITE CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE
I kinda feel like todays recipe post is a bit timely in nature. If you live over here on the west coast, you are I am sure in the 90% bracket of people who are exhausted from the winter we have been having. Uber wet, gloomy, grey skies, fog, did I mention wet and rainy?! And so I hope this recipe will bring a little bit of sunshine to your hearts along with the hope of spring days just around the corner.
I, on the other hand, am in that 10% bracket (maybe even less?! 10% might be generous) of people that absolutely loves these rainy days and am getting anxious for the sunshine that is inevitably going to beam down upon us. We woke up the other morning to one of the gloomiest days we have had thus far this winter and the first thing Paul said to me while looking outside at the buckets of pouring rain, the heavily filled cloudy grey sky and fog covered farmland, “holyyyy it is a beautiful day, look at it out there”, and yes my friends he was dead serious. My reply, “I know! Its like a dream day right?!". We are weird, I get it, I think of it as part of our 12 year charm?!
Weirdness aside I do love a spring day, when the flowers are starting to bloom, the hummingbirds start to flutter around and I can wear my birken sandals again, mostly it’s summer I hate! Go figure.
Weather behind us, lets talk sunshiny lemon pound cake! I love this cake because of a few factors:
It is super simple and utterly satisfying;
It isn’t too sweet, like some of you might want to add more sugar, but I kinda like lemon cake like that;
It is dense and moist and tangy (thank you buttermilk);
There ain’t no extracts here, all pure real lemon!
Really though this lemon pound cake is pretty awesome. The batter is infused with real lemon zest and juice, then after the cake comes out of the oven it is soaked in a not too sweet lemon syrup and then finally it is drizzled in a white chocolate glaze. Let me tell you lemon and white chocolate make a magnificent pairing. You can get fancy and add some shaved white chocolate on top too but it isn’t necessary.
I hope this pound cake makes you as happy as it makes me. I hope it brightens your gloomy day if you are need of some bright, fresh, lemony, burst of a pick me up. And I hope that it can become a lemon pound cake staple recipe as it has become in our household.
LEMON SOAKED, WHITE CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE
Lemon pound cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
Lemon syrup:
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp icing sugar
White Chocolate Glaze:
1/4 cup white chocolate
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp icing sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar together at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
With the mixer running on low-speed, add the eggs one at a time (incorporating fully before adding the next egg), then beat in the vanilla extract and lemon juice, until just combined.
With the mixer on low, add one-third of the flour mixture and mix until almost combined, then add half the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Repeat with another third of flour mixture and then the last half of the buttermilk, ending with the last third of the flour. Beat until just combined.
In a small sauce pan melt 1 tbsp of butter. Once melted, brush the butter onto the bottom and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Make sure to do this step right before you are about to put the batter into the pan (otherwise the butter will just drip to the bottom of the pan). This steps gives you those perfectly golden, slightly crispy edges.
Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes in the pan. Stir together the lemon juice and icing sugar for the lemon syrup. Carefully invert the loaf pan, and transfer the cake to a cooling rack, then brush the syrup on the cake while it’s still warm. I like to brush the sides and top. It may seem like a lot of syrup but just keep brushing, it will all soak in and give the top of the cake the most lovely gooey softness.
While the cake is cooling you can make the white chocolate glaze. Add the white chocolate and milk to a small sauce pan. Let the chocolate melt, stirring often. Once melted take the pan off the heat and add the icing sugar. Mixing well, until there are no lumps and the glaze is smooth. Pour over the cake, add some shaved white chocolate if desired.