Citrus Pound Cake

Ahhhh pound cake…. old-fashioned goodness at its best!

But why do they call it pound cake?  Traditionally, pound cake was made with a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a pound of eggs. EGADS that’s one HUGE cake!

Over time, many new versions of pound cake have broken onto the scene, yielding new flavors and densities. Exploring the regions, you’ll notice that pound cake can take many shapes and sizes, as well as change dramatically in taste and presentation. For now, I’m just going to stick with my way….It works for me

I’ve adapted my pound cake recipe to include a little zing from orange zest..just a little sunny note of flavor. The beauty of this recipe is it’s versatility. Change the zests, substitute extracts and flavorings….play around a bit!

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup butter, softened

3 cups granulated sugar

3 cups sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

6 eggs, separate the yolks and whites

1 (8 oz.) container of sour cream

1 teaspoon orange extract

Zest from 1 large or 2 small oranges

Icing:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon orange extract

Directions:

Grease and flour a 10″ bundt or tube pan and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed for a couple of minutes, until the butter is nice and creamy.

Add the sugar in 1/2 cup additions, allowing it to incorporate before the next addition. Take your time with this…..it should take about 5 minutes.

Combine the flour and baking soda, then add it to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time. You’ll notice the batter is think and almost chunky. Normal…..

Add all of the egg yolks to the batter and allow it to mix thoroughly on medium speed.

Stop the mixer and add in the sour cream, extract, and zest. Turn the mixer to the lowest speed and allow the ingredients to “stir” in. Do not let it whip!

In a separate bowl, I bust out my electric hand mixer for this, beat the egg whites at high-speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whites into the batter. Use the bottom to top folding method…don’t go crazy with stirring. You want the whites to retain as much of their loft as possible to avoid a dense cake.

Spoon the batter into your prepared pan and gently tap the pan on the counter a few times.

Bake at 300 degrees for about 2 hours, or until it passes the toothpick test in the center.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn the cake out of the pan. Cool completely before icing.

To create the icing, simply place all of the icing ingredients into a medium bowl and beat until smooth. I like to place the icing into a piping bag to drizzle onto the cake.

And here is the finished product….medium density, springy, slightly zingy…..DIVINE!

Hope you enjoy!

Signing Off,

Modern Mrs. Cleaver