Glazed Lemon Pound Cake Loaf

This recipe is beyond amazing, it even works well gluten free! And its not overly sweet when balanced with the perfect tartness of the glaze. When it comes to baking loaves like this one, and other desserts, always make sure you don’t skip anything, trust me, it doesn’t work well. Like ‘at room temperature’, ‘add in one at a time’, or even ‘whisk in a separate bowl. So I’ve learned my lesson the hard way, which path will you take? Here’s a little note before you decide; It’s a small price to pay for such good cake!

Ingredients

Loaf:

• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 Tbsp lemon zest from about 1 large lemon
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sour cream removed from fridge 15 minutes before using

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup icing/confectioners’ sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice plus more, as needed

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray an 8×4-inch loaf pan with baking spray and line with a piece of parchment paper that covers the bottom and long sides, with an inch or so extending past the top of the pan (these will be the “handles” to lift the loaf out of the pan).
• In a large bowl with an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter with the sugar until light coloured and fluffy. (Don’t skimp on this process. It should beat about 3 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time and beat in well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl, as needed. Beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together well the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. With mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream, starting with 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the sour cream, 1/3 of the flour, last of the sour cream, then finally the last of the flour.
• Scrape into prepared 8×4-inch loaf pan and level batter. Bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a knife along the short ends and use the parchment paper edges to lift and remove from pan. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
• While loaf is still a little warm, prepare the glaze, adding enough lemon juice to make a pourable glaze. Place a baking tray under the cooling rack to catch any drips and spoon glaze slowly over top of loaf, allowing it to drip down the sides a bit. Cool completely, then slice and enjoy.

Just a little note, I know you can normally substitute oil for butter, but in this case you need to CREAM the butter and sugar like in cookies, and you can’t cream oil and sugar so please don’t use oil for a sub in this recipe.