I love lemons. They're yellow, they're cheerful, they're lovely. Just looking at lemons makes me smile. I love the way that they smell, I love lemonade, perhaps a bit too much, I love lemon on my chicken. But oh my goodness, lemon desserts are perhaps some of the only sweet things that just really make me feel a little bit queasy. I don't have an explanation for this oddity (and it's odd -- I have a serious sweet tooth), and I certainly go back to the well each and every time I lemon dessert is served to me. Usually after dinner I'm clamoring for dessert, and I'm often desperate enough to think that lemon sweetness is better than none at all. Just one bite, though, is enough to make me set my fork down and push my plate away.
Any time one of my baking groups picks a lemon dessert my brain immediately starts pondering who's going to eat this. Not Dudley, that's 100% certain. That kiddo doesn't even like a lemon on the edge of his water glass. Luckily, I happen to know many people who love lemon desserts -- the tarter the better. Poundcakes are sturdy enough to make it through the mail unscathed, and let's just say that these little cakes are headed south for the winter.
For this cake, I used Meyer lemons because I had quite a few in my kitchen. Walnuts are . . . not my favorite nut; I generally don't buy them, so I subbed pecans for the walnuts in this recipe. I made 2 mini cakes to spread the poundcake love just a bit more. Other than that, I made this recipe exactly as written. I always think it's a litte difficult to time minis, so I checked on these frequently after 35 minutes in the oven. They ended up baking for about 50 minutes, and I was a little bummed that the edges got so dark while the inside was trying to finish baking. I wonder if tenting the cakes would help slow that darkening process? I tried to make sure that I put quite a bit of glaze on the edges in an effort to make sure that the cake was moist the whole way through. I haven't tasted this cake, so I don't have any pictures of the inside or flavor feedback here. Right now these cakes are wrapped up and resting up in my freezer for their upcoming trip through the mail.
The Baked Lemon Lemon Loaf is my go-to lemon poundcake recipe for the lovers of lemon in my life -- and they all rave about that cake. I'm excited to hear how this cake compares to the Baked loaf as the recipes have similar ingredients. Raeann of Basically, Baby Boots chose this recipe. I thought it was a fun cake to make and bake, you can head over to her blog for the recipe.
17 comments:
Your loaves look great. I hope you like the taste when you finally try it.
I loved this recipe. I did put foil over mine and felt like it did help.
I love using those paper baking pans - so pretty! I'll have to try the Baked recipe... I've got the book, but haven't had a chance to make anything out of it! Thanks for your thoughts, too. :)
I baked mine in a bundt cake pan instead of the loaf pans. I am looking at the Lemon Lemon Loaf recipe right now. :)
Oh no! You can not handle eating lemon desserts? What a good sport to know this ahead of time and still bake the pound cake. Your mini loaves turned out wonderful and mine was a little dark too. I was wondering the same thing about tenting.
Thank you for the compliment on my lemon pan. Maybe you deserve an early present?
I love lemons too - I think it has a lot to do with their cheerful yellow color, but I also love the way they smell. You're a trooper to bake along this week and pop these in the mail. Hope they're a hit with the lucky recipients!
I had the issue with the browning tops too. I think tenting would definitely help, I'm going to try it next time.
I hope they taste good! Im sure they will cus they look great. I loved this recipe and love lemon too!
YUM! These look good though.
I love the addition of pecans! Those cakes look really good. I really liked this one but then I adore lemon desserts!
Even though they got a bit dark on top, I heart you little beauties.
The little loves look great, I'm sure the recipients will greatly appreciate them. I baked a full loaf and tented it at one hour, then it baked for about fifteen more minutes and wasn't terribly dark.
I've been dying to try the Baked lemon loaf. Next time I want a lemony dessert, I'll make it.
Taste is such a funny thing - who knows why we have aversions? I've always felt that lemon was a "safe" dessert for company because everyone seems to love it, but now I'll have to rethink that strategy. Your cakes look great to me, and the feedback will be interesting.
Jessica,
I know what you mean! I'm not like that when it comes to lemmons in desserts, but I'm like that when it comes to milk products. I love, love, love milk and at time can just drink a nice tall, cold glass, but there's something about cooked milk that I can't stand. Many Indian desserts use milk products, and they make me very nausous. The taste, and even the smell - eeewww! However, if it's cooked a certain way and doesn't have that sweet cooked milk smell, then I'm alright. Strange, I know.
Well, I'm very happy that you baked this recipe with me this week. Your pound cakes look good and I especially like your bread tins. The recipients of these pound cakes are very luck and I'm sure that they will appreciate every bite.
Raeann
I don't think I've made the lemon cake from Baked - but I do remember that one being your favorite.
I think you'd like it better without the nuts, anyways.
I can still remember the first time I made a cake. It was a pound cake because I find it easy to make. This one looks so delicious and I am now craving for some.
A fun treat to send in the mail! Glad I wasn't the only one struggling with done on the outside but waiting on the inside...
I love lemon in everything--savory or sweet. Lemon with chicken is the best--I always end up adding more than the recipe calls for. =)
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