For Tonja: Pound Cake!

I was looking for a recipe for a pound cake that did not require sour cream. Turns out that I didn't have any sour cream or buttermilk or even yogurt in the fridge.

What??? Yup. Out of all three.

All of my "go to" recipes for pound cakes require one or more of the missing ingredients. And I personally don't like "souring milk" with vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk...but I digress.

The problem remained: I needed to present a homemade pound cake to my Saturday all day class in my advanced BA program. (yeah, me: I went back to school!)

So... I looked around at all of my bookmarked recipes and found one that I wanted to try. Uh, with a few variations. My changes will be italicized.



Lemon Lime Cream Cheese Pound Cake
(Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy)


Makes two 5 x 9 loaf cakes or one 12-cup bundt cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
Zest from 2 lemons (I used limes)
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
Juice of both zested limes
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter and flour two 5 x 9 loaf pans. I used a 12-cup bundt pan.

Mix the sugar and the lemon zest in a small bowl and rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers. The warmth from your fingers will release the oils from the zest and flavor the sugar. Set aside.

Place the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, about five minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the lime juice, vanilla and lemon extracts. Then, add the flour, baking powder and salt all at once. Mix just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and shake lightly to even out the top. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours. (my bundt cake took 80 minutes)

Cool the cake(s) on a rack for 20 minutes. Remove the cake(s) from the pan(s) and let cool completely.

Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy!



Sorry no pictures. I will see if I can get pictures from happy classmates tomorrow.