LEMON POUND CAKE SANS SOUR CREAM…my twist to the cake!

"We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons."

Alfred E. Newman

Here’s one of our favourite 'anytime' cakes…with a tangy,fresh lemon taste and a light crumb.Doesn’t need icing, and is lovely for an evening tea. I've worked on the recipe for a while to find a good substitute for sour cream. This cake always gets me rave reviews.

Ingredients:

Butter – ½ cup/100gms
Eggs – 3
Sugar – 1 ¼ cups
Flour – 1 ½ cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Yogurt – 4 tbsp / thick
Cream – 2 tbsp / 25 % fat
Juice of 1 lemon
Rind of 2 lemons
Lemon Extract - 1 tsp
Orange Essence – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Water – ¼ cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Lemon Juice of 2 lemons
Orange Extract – ½ tsp (optional)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease well and line bottom of 8” ring tin.(Tends to stick otherwise)
• Sift the dry ingredients together. Keep aside.
• Mix the yogurt + cream in a small bowl. Keep aside.
• Beat the butter + sugar well until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs 1 by 1, scraping the sides down after each addition.
• Beat in the lemon rind + lemon extract + orange essence + vanilla essence + lemon juice.
• On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients alternatively with yogurt and cream mix…in 3 goes.
• If you like, you can mix a deeper yellow colour in 1/3 of the batter to get a marble effect.
• Put the batter into the tin, alternating with the deeper coloured batter, if using, and level out.
• Bake for approximately 60 mins, or till the tester comes out clean.
• Cool in tin on rack for 10 mins, and then turn it out on rack.
• While the cake is baking, heat the water + sugar + extract and make syrup.
• Take off heat, and add the lemon juice. Taste, and increase the lemon if desired.
• Should taste nice and tangy…like a concentrate.
• Poke the cake gently with a skewer.
• Pour the warm syrup over the hot cake. Handle cake gently while warm, as it’s quite delicate.

Babushkas peeping out...this one's for you, Chhoti!!