Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

Oh Meyer Lemon, how I love you.

Living in Sacramento gives us great access to all kinds of fresh fruits and veggies, especially citrus.
I have a friend who says she can't understand why anyone living here would ever buy citrus.....there are so many trees to borrow from.

This is true.  It is in fact her tree, from which I borrowed the Meyer lemons to make this pound cake.
Thanks Coco!

This could easily be served as a brunch item or dessert.
We ate it for dessert after scrumptious carne asada made by my Ironmommy.  Yum.

I'm sure plain lemon pound cake is good, but I really believe the Meyer lemons make a difference.  They have such a sweetness and even more so when baked.

This recipe was inspired by this one.

Ingredients:

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Unsalted butter to grease your baking dish
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of two Meyer lemons
1/3 cup olive oil (that's right, olive oil)
1 1/2 tablespoons milk (I used 2%)
3/4 cup Greek yogurt (I used the Trader Joe's low-fat version)
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Note - you'll need a few clean bowls for this recipe.  Lot's of bowls happening.

Limoncello Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Limoncello* (feel free to substitute with fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice)
1 1/2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice

How to:

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Pre-heat your oven to 325
Line the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper
Grease the pan and paper with unsalted butter
Melt your unsalted butter and set it aside
Sift flour, baking powder and salt to a large bowl and mix well
Whisk 2 egg whites until stiff peaks form, transfer to a separate bowl**
Add 2 egg yolks, sugar and lemon zest to your clean mixer bowl.  Beat on medium until the mixture turns light yellow and forms ribbons when beater is lifted, transfer to mixture to another bowl
Add olive oil, milk, Greek yogurt and lemon juice to your clean mixer bowl, whisk at low speed until combined
If using a stand mixer, switch to your paddle attachment
Add flour to the olive oil, milk, Greek yogurt, lemon juice mixture
Drizzle in melted butter and mix until combined
Add in the egg yolk, sugar and lemon zest mixture and mix until combined
At this time you should have combined all of your bowls except the egg whites
Fold in the egg whites to the mixture by hand
Now all your pound cake ingredients should be in one bowl, mixed
Pour the batter into the prepared pan
Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan
(while the cake is baking you can get started on the glaze)
Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes
When done the cake should be golden and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean
Transfer the pound cake to a wire rack to cool
While the pound cake is still warm, pour over the lemon glaze and let it sit for about a half hour to dry

Limoncello Glaze
Using your mixer (again) with a clean bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, limoncello (if you're using it) and Meyer lemon juice***
While the pound cake is still warm, pour over the lemon glaze and let it sit for about a half hour to dry

*You can buy Limoncello at most well stocked groceries.  We have an Italian grocery nearby that stocks several varieties.  I happened to have Meyer Limoncello that my mom made from the same Meyer lemon tree where I got the lemons from.
**I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to make this, so I whisked the egg whites first, transferred them to a different bowl, rinsed out my mixer bowl and then did the next step.
***You can increase or decrease either ingredient to get the consistency to your liking.  I like the glaze on the thinner side.

When I make this cake again, I will pour the glaze over on a different dish than I'm using to serve.  You can see in the pictures that there was a pool of glaze around this cake.  My step-dad enjoyed sopping up the glaze with his cake, so I suppose it all worked out, but, that said, I think it would be more eye appealing if it wasn't drowning in glaze.

The cake itself is super moist and refreshing tasting.  This would make a great Easter dish.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. If you could give me a Facebook like over here that would be awesome!

Have a great day,
♥TCW