Poundcake

Sorry, y’all. It was this or no crumb pic. Cake was halfway gone by the time I realized that the ship to a decent picture had already sailed without me.

This is a pretty simple and easy pound cake recipe. I often use this when I need a cake with a quickness! I worked out this formula during a bizarre moment in my life when I’d allowed myself to get too low on butter to be willing to use it on a cake. I’m never low on butter anymore, but I haven’t changed the recipe. It’s a really moist, easy cake that Ross thinks should always be lemon poppy because the cake reminds him of his childhood. You could put poppy in here if you wanted. Child Tester, however, was certain we needed strawberries in this cake, although we didn’t have any. I remembered I had some freeze dried strawberry powder (you get this by blending freeze dried strawberries) for some other cake (Yule, probably), and grabbed that instead. I’d forgotten to put a a moisture absorber in there, so I broke it up and it functioned as strawberries. She was delighted, and in particular because she made this cake, to have it the way she wanted it. Ironically, she liked this less than we did, presumably because it lacked glaze. She’s a great lover of sugar, that one!

Here’s what you’ll need

1 cup each: yogurt, sugar (can also use milk, milk kefir, whey, water, etc)

3 eggs

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons strawberry powder (optional)

1/2 teaspoon cardamom (also optional, but this spice goes well with strawberries and the majority of other fruits)

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1-2 tablespoons of poppy seeds, if you’re headed in that direction instead

Here’s what you’ll do

Whisk together the first group of ingredients. Then whisk together the dry group before adding it to the liquids. Stir in the oil (and seeds, if using). Oil part takes a minute.

Bake time!

Prepare your loaf pan. You’re basically going to oil it like crazy, and you may also use parchment or coffee filters to line it, if you like. Heat your oven to 375F/190C/GM5, then bake for 1 hour. Use a tester to make sure it comes out of the cake clean when you stick it in there, and if all good to go, cool for 10 minutes on rack before turning it out of the pan. If it’s not a clean tester, give it another 5 and test again.

You may also, if you want, glaze yours once cooled. I do around 1.5 cups of powdered sugar to 2 tablespoons of juice.

This is right after it came out of the pan. I used coffee filters instead of parchment, and it didn’t pan as well as it usually does. Cake is a bit mangled on the sides, but we had a good time eating the bits that were stuck to it!