School has been keeping me very busy and as a result, I am a bit behind on my blogging. Hopefully I will be caught up soon. I recently had my first real pregnancy craving – cake. Cake is what I wanted, in almost any form. Every recipe I looked at sounded amazing. However, since I have been sick on and off, and very tired lately, I decided to opt for something low maintenance and do a pound cake. We had poppy seed wedding cake so I have kind of a “thing” for poppy seeds, and that is why I decided to make this variation on a classic pound cake. The result was absolutely delicious and the cake stayed moist for days after baking (I wrapped it well to prevent drying out).
Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. poppy seeds
2 eggs, at room temperature
½ cup sour cream, at room temperature
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°. Lightly grease a loaf pan (preferably glass) and dust with flour, shaking to remove the excess.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt until blended. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice and poppy seeds until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until just blended. Sprinkle half of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and stir until both are just incorporated. Stir in the sour cream, then sprinkle with the remaining flour mixture and stir until evenly distributed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 70 minutes. Keep an eye on the cake near the end of baking and cover loosely with foil if necessary to prevent over-browning. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes.
Run a knife around the inside of the pan, invert the cake onto the rack and lift off the pan. Place the cake on one of its sides and continue cooling. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Source: Williams Sonoma
