Day 175 - Lemon Vanilla Poundcake

Did you skip today?

That was your homework.

Do you receive an A for effort, at least?

I'm not going to grade you on your skipping ability, just that you made the effort.

I skipped.

And let me tell you, haha, it is NOT as easy to do as it was when I was a kid.

The body is a wee bit heavier, I'm not as nimble, and parts of the body just did not cooperate as I had assumed hoped they would.

Four out of five of us went out to dinner tonight.  After dinner we had to go to a sporting goods store to purchase our new male cross country runner some sneakers.

After leaving the store I grabbed my 14 year old son's hand and attempted to have him join me in a good brisk skip to the car.

He wanted no part of it, let me tell you.

I pleaded, I begged, and still it was a no-go.

I guess he was embarrassed or something.

And this coming from a kid who when he was little, loved to skip and actually skipped much better than his sisters.  (He'd die if he knew I shared that!)

Geez, thanks for the support, kid.

My 17 year old daughter would have no part of it either, and Mr. 365 looked at me as if I'd lost it.

So, I smiled and skipped merrily on my way, not concerned about their reactions or what other people in the parking lot might have thought.

I have to say that it was pretty exhilarating and brought back a lot of memories.

That is, until I realized it probably isn't good to skip in flip flops.

I suppose you're wondering what happened next and perhaps thinking that I tripped, landed on my face, and got some major parking lot road rash.

Yeah, that'd teach her, a middle-aged woman trying to act much younger than she really is and she falls.  She had it coming.  I'm certainly glad I didn't do what she suggested.

Wait a cotton.  pickin'.  minute!

Back that truck up!!!!!

Did I just label myself as a middle-aged woman??

¡Ay, caramba! 

I didn't trip.  I didn't fall.  I am still well aware of my center of balance even if I am (gulp) middle aged, but had I skipped well past where our car was located, who knows what the outcome would have been.

It was fun, but I don't know if I'll be doing it again anytime soon, especially in shoes not conducive to skipping.

I hope you didn't hurt yourself, had fun, and at least smiled.

I'll smile at someone tomorrow, say hello, or help an old lady across the street and hopefully I won't be sore from today's extra exertion.  ;-)

I found this cake in Chocolate & Vanilla, p.52-53; author, Gale Gand; publisher, Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown publishing group, a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 978-0-307-23852-8.

Lemon Vanilla Pound Cake - makes one 10-inch Bundt cake / 8-10 servings  

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk

4 large eggs

2 1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract (I omitted)

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

juice of 1 lemon

Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter.  Generously brush a 10-inch tube pan or Bundt pan with the melted butter and refrigerate if for a few minutes.  Once the butter has hardened, brush it again to cover any spots you missed the first time.  Set the pan aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Bring the milk and remaining 8 tablespoons of butter just to a boil in a medium saucepan; set aside. 

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the eggs on medium-high speed until light and very fluffy, about 5-7 minutes.  

 

Reduce the speed to medium and stir in 2 cups of the sugar, the vanilla and lemon extracts, and lemon zest.

On low speed, gradually mix in the flour.

Pour in the hot milk mixture then add the baking powder, and stir until the batter is thoroughly combined.

pour the batter into the buttered Bundt pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, blend the lemon juice with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

Invert the cake onto a cooling rack.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, right.

WHOOPS! 

Good grief, Charlie Brown!!

My suggestion here would be to butter and flour the pan very generously.
Place the wire rack onto a rimmed baking sheet and brush the warm cake all over with the lemon syrup, letting the syrup soak in as you go.

 

Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature.

This was definitely missing something.  And I'm thinking it might have been the lemon extract I omitted.

Why did I omit it, you ask?

I have no idea.

Perhaps I was thinking I didn't want to purchase it because I didn't already have it.  

Or maybe it was because I didn't want it to be too lemony.

I could have added more lemon juice to the cake itself.

Why didn't I do that?

I have no answer.

I was attempting to omit and adapt and that led to an unsatisfactory result.

We'll just chalk it up to baker's error.

A. Gain.

Wow, three days on a row.

I'm on a roll.

Tomorrow, it's got to be dinner.  I think I need a break from desserts.

Pretty good, hunh? Hunh?

I was SO (shhhhhh....) pissed off!

Definitely, definitely butter and flour the cake pan.  Do yourself a favor so you don't have to piecemeal it back together.

I rate everything I bake on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the absolute best and unfortunately, this Lemon Vanilla Pound Cake wasn't the best.  We decided it earned 2 1/2 rolling pins, probably due to the omitted lemon extract.

Next time, I'll add it.

Happy baking!