Lemon-Lime Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

This light and fresh pound cake is not your typical pound cake, because you add lemon-lime soft drink to the mix!  The soda adds a lovely citrus note to this cake, and the lemon glaze is just scrumptious.

I had to alter the recipe a little bit, because it was 11:00 at night, and I had no lemon extract or fresh lemons so I'm going to post the original recipe, and then I'll note what I used instead (including bottled lemon juice - gasp!).  Mine came out beautifully, so it's up to you which ingredients you choose to use.

Here's how you make it.

Ingredients:


Pound Cake - 

1 and 1/2 cups of butter, softened
3 cups of sugar
5 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon zest (I used a teaspoon of bottled lemon juice)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of lemon extract (I used another teaspoon of bottled lemon juice)
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of lemon-lime soft drink


Lemon Glaze - 

2 cups of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour your bundt pan - the recipe called for shortening to grease the pan, but I used non-stick spray.

With a mixer, beat the softened butter on medium for 30 seconds.

Add the sugar, and beat on medium for 3 to 5 minutes.  You might be tempted to make a shortcut here, and not mix it this long, but don't - it really needs this much time!

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one until it's just incorporated.

Stir in the lemon zest and extracts (or lemon juice and vanilla if you're like me).

Alternate adding the flour and the lemon-lime soft drink, being careful to stop when the flour or soda is JUST mixed in - you don't want to over-beat.

Pour the batter into your greased and floured bundt pan, and smooth the batter across the top.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then check the doneness with a toothpick inserted into the cake - it should come out without any crumbs.  You can continue to bake in 10 minute intervals, or until the toothpick comes out clean.  [Please note: you may want to shield the top of the cake with aluminum foil after 45 minutes to avoid over-browning.]

Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then use a butter knife to gently work your way around the outside of the pan, and the inner cone to ensure the cake will come out cleanly.

Invert your bundt pan on the wire rack, and hopefully the cake comes out in one piece - you can release that breath that you were holding!

Lemon glaze:

While the cake is cooling, whip up some delicious lemon glaze by whisking the confectioners sugar and lemon juice, and then adding in the milk a little at a time until smooth.

Spoon some glaze over the cake while it is warm, and add more after it has cooled completely - saving some to drizzle over the cake slices.  This is an inherently messy job, so make sure you place something under the wire rack to catch the drips!

I'm hope that you will enjoy this cake…its fresh citrus flavor and moist texture make for a really delightful pound cake.  It's also really simple to change the flavoring with changing the lemon extract/zest/juice to orange juice/extract, almond extract, or even maple extract/syrup.

Although it may looks complicated, it's just a lot of ingredients added in one by one - I measure everything out and place it in a line (in order of addition) next to my mixer before I begin, and this makes the process MUCH easier.

I hope you'll try this recipe, with whatever flavorings you prefer, and you'll see how wonderful it is!

Enjoy,
Sugar Baby

Source: Southern Living Cakes & Pies.