Pound Cakes, I Love Thee

October 07, 2015

Pound Cakes, I Love Thee

Lemon rosemary pound cake.

Everyone loves a basic lemon pound cake. Nothing beats having a comforting slice of cake with moist and tender crumbs, no mousse to get in the way. Some serve it with whipped cream on the side, but I rather not. The recipe here is a rosemary flavored one, which also happens to be one of my favorite combinations for pound cake. Feel free to omit the herb if you want to go au naturel. Lemon poppyseed is another top favorite.

Lemon Rosemary Pound Cake
(makes 1 regular loaf)

Ingredients
For the cake:
190g softened unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
165g caster sugar
3 large eggs
190g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
25ml whole milk
80g sour cream / Greek plain yogurt

For the soaking syrup:
Juice of 1 lemon
50g caster sugar
100ml water

For the icing:
2 cups icing sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C.
2. Grease a 17.5 by 8.5 cm loaf tin with butter and lightly dust it with plain flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand-held electric whisk or free-standing electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl and mix in the lemon zest and chopped rosemary.
6. With the machine on low speed, add one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. When it is mixed well, add the second one-third of the flour mixture. Then add the milk and increase the speed to medium to mix well. Add the remaining flour mixture and keep mixing until the batter is smooth and even. Lastly, add in the sour cream / yogurt and mix till smooth.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. To check for doneness, stick a satay skewer into the cake. It should come out clean.
8. While the cake is baking, make the soaking syrup. Bring the lemon juice, sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan set over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and set aside.
9. When the cake is ready and still hot from the oven, pour the syrup over the cake and allow it to soak in.
10. Leave the cake to cool in the tin a little before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool further.
11. Mix the icing sugar with lemon juice until the sugar dissolves into a paste. It should be pourable and not too runny. The consistency may be adjusted by adding more lemon juice for a thinner icing.
12. When the cake is completely cool, pour the icing over the top and let it drip down the sides of the cake. Allow the cake to rest for at least an hour before serving or until the icing is set.
13. Decorate the cake with fresh rosemary leaves and grated lemon zest.

Note: I won't recommend you to omit the lemon syrup glaze cos' it adds so much citrusy zing to the cake!