Shock and Awe

Hallelujah! ConEd (boo!) and my landlord (boo!) finally turned the gas back on after TWO WEEKS! Yeah! Now I know what the phrase "cooking with gas" really means! This all dovetailed with the extra annoying snowstorm of October 29. I was without gas, heat and hot water on the 28th & 29th, and have been without gas until today. It actually had nothing to do with the storm, but then again, I have yet to understand what it had to do with. I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone! Obviously it was nothing like what the people in the state of CT have been dealing with for the past 10 days, but still. Ordering in, making salads, and cooking in the toaster oven gets old after a while! BTW: Does anybody know if I can withhold a portion of my rent? I haven't looked into that yet...

So, in light of being able to cook and bake again, I bring you...lemon pound cake! To be truthful I made this over two weeks ago, but it felt somehow wrong to blog about baking when I actually couldn't! (I am dying to bake something autumnal and pumpkin-y this weekend though, so stay tuned.) Anyway, I have been on a super hard core purge/re-organization of my apartment, and not only came across 150 food magazines hiding in the back of my closet (Relax-I threw them out!), I found a few binders full of recipes, which I similarly didn't recall hoarding, I mean, having. I did quickly flip through the recipes to pull anything that looked appealing, and this pound cake was a clear winner. It was originally a recipe for orange pound cake, but since I can't stand anything orange flavored, I changed it to lemon. Delish. I pawned it off on the folks at work not knowing that it might be the last thing I ever bake...(sniff). I think I'm going to go boil a pot of water! Because I can!



Lemon Pound Cake
Adapted from Saveur

For the Cake:
14 tablespoons softened, unsalted butter
3 tablespoons milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

For the Glaze:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice



1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 6-cup loaf pan with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Set aside. Put the milk, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl and beat until well combined. Set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, and baking powder into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk. Add the zest, beating on medium speed, then add remaining 13 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting until each is completely incorporated before adding more.

3. Slowly add the milk-egg mixture, beating constantly, until the batter is just mixed together. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 55-65 minutes. (Lightly cover the cake with a piece of buttered foil during baking if it begins to get too brown.) Allow the cake to cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan. Using a skewer, poke holes all over the top of the cake.

4. For the glaze: Combine the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the glaze by half. Brush some of the warm glaze over the top of the cake, reapplying the glaze until cake is saturated. Serves 8.