Martha Stewart Cracked The Code to Perfect Lemon Pound Cake
A perfect pound cake is a beautiful thing. It's rich and buttery with a perfectly dense texture. The only thing that's better (in my opinion) than a pound cake is a lemon pound cake. The hit of citrus gives the cake a delicious light, bright note.
Considering my passion for pound cake you can imagine my delight when I ran across Martha Stewart's Whole-Lemon Pound Cake recipe. It looked great, but when I read the recipe I was confused. She boils and purees an entire lemon (yes, the WHOLE thing!) to use in the batter. That couldn't work, right? But it's Martha, so I decided I had to give it a shot. Here's how it went when I tried the recipe in my kitchen.
Get the Recipe: Martha Stewart's Whole Lemon Pound Cake
What Do You Need for Martha Stewart's Whole-Lemon Pound Cake?
The best thing about this recipe is that except for the lemon all the other ingredients are items I typically keep in my pantry. I am always fully stocked when it comes to butter, eggs, flour and sugar. I imagine if you are reading this you are too. Add one lemon and you're ready to cook!
Related: 32 Incredible Lemon Desserts
Theresa Greco
Related: Martha Stewart's One Pan Pasta
How To Make Martha Stewart's Whole-Lemon Pound Cake
Although it takes some time, this recipe is actually super simple to make. You start by boiling one lemon until tender, about 30 minutes. You let the lemon cool slightly, then roughly chop it before pulsing it briefly in a food processor to create a lemon puree.
Theresa Greco
In the meantime, you cream together your butter, sugar and vanilla. Add your eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Next you add half your dry ingredients followed by half your lemon puree until it is all incorporated. The batter is transferred to a prepared loaf pan and baked. The recipe calls for baking the cake for calls 1 hour and 25 minutes, but because ovens vary you should definitely keep an eye on it. Mine was done in an hour.
Martha pairs her cake with a pomegranate glaze, which is a pretty pink color and I'm sure pairs nicely with the lemon. I'm not a pomegranate fan and also couldn't find them in the store this time of year, so I just make a simple powdered sugar and milk glaze. If you wanted more lemon flavor, you could add some lemon juice and/or zest to the glaze.
Related: 10 Ridiculously Delicious Pound Cake Recipes
Theresa Greco
My Honest Opinion of Martha Stewart's Whole-Lemon Pound Cake
This recipe creates a ridiculously delicious pound cake. Its buttery and tender and infused with incredible lemon flavor. Because you cooked and puree the entire lemon you get a more complex lemon flavor than you'd get from lemon juice alone. The cake is tangy from the lemon juice and fragrant thanks to the lemon zest. Plus no squeezed lemon to toss in the trash, which is a lovely bonus!
I'll admit I was initially skeptical of this process, but I never should have doubted Queen Martha. I'll definitely be making this this recipe again this summer—and for the rest of the year.