Glazed Lemon Pound Cakes

Remember my first go at the MSBH’s recipe for Classic Pound Cake?  Well, I am happy to report this pound cake recipe yields much more satisfying results, although I’m not entirely blown away.  It tastes and feels like more of a tea cake than a pound cake – more light and spongy than it is rich and buttery.  And for all the promise of the fruity, boozy glaze that goes on top, it doesn’t add a tremendous amount of flavor to the cake itself (although that could be because I used an alternative ingredient that I’ll go into more below).

A couple Tablespoons of poppy seeds complete the dry ingredients.

The batter is quick and easy and yields two loaf-shaped cakes.

I did adjust the baking powder for altitude, because the recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon and that just seemed like trouble.  I reduced it by 50%, but as you can see from my fallen cakes, I should have reduced it by about 75% (if not more!).

One note of caution, these cakes stick to the pan like crazy.  I would highly recommend lining at least the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper in addition to a liberal amount of butter.  I simply buttered the pans as the MSBH instructs, but despite using a ton of butter, these were still a nightmare to remove.

The glaze for these cakes is easy, made with only apricot jam and Cognac.

I should note that I used Cloudberry preserve because I didn’t have any apricot jam on hand.  This may be why my glaze lacks the punch that I wish it had to liven up the cake itself, although I can’t imagine why.  Cloudberries are pretty intense little things.

The glaze is cooked briefly on the stovetop and then strained.

I had more than enough to glaze both of the cakes.

This was another ho-hum recipe for me but I can imagine it would be perfectly nice for a breakfast or brunch.  It comes together quickly and easily and could look very pretty if you keep your loaves from falling.

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