Oh my god. I made this for the first time, with a few changes, and the result was INCREDIBLE. Melt-in-your-mouth texture, tender... mmmm. I reduced sugar to 2/3 cup, and beat the butter (yes, butter) for 3mins, sugar for 3 mins, eggs + extracts (vanilla, almond, orange)for 3 mins, (used sour cream instead of buttermilk) and then added the final ingredients- plus I alternated between flour mixture and liquid beginning with flour mixture. (the flour, salt, baking powder) I guarentee my mixing method will work. ;)
There are 5-star recipes, and then there are FIVE STAR recipes. This is a FIVE STAR recipe. Oh my goodness, what a treat! Moist and lemony and exquisitely delicious. I used a combination of lemons and limes to use what I had on hand and Limoncello for the Grand Marnier (Triple Sec would have been a fine substitute too!) I did add the ginger as directed, but quite honestly neither Hubs nor I could detect it. As for the syrupy drizzle, I boiled the lemon juice/ sugar mixture for a couple of minutes to make sure the sugar was dissolved. Man oh man, that cake soaked that right up! (I brushed it over the cake, little by little, with a pastry brush) No wonder it was so good and sweet and sinfully moist and lemony! But I didn't stop there. The cake looked half-dressed, and looked like it could use some accessorizing. So I made a powdered sugar glaze with about a cup of powdered sugar and enough lemon juice and milk to make it about the consistency of thick Elmer's Glue, and then gave it a few shavings of fresh grated lemon zest. I swear that took it right over the top. Hubs and I had a little taste of the cake and I was proud to give the rest away to some friends in Naples. We were told it completely disappeared in a matter of a few minutes. I promised those who weren't lucky enough to get any I'd be back with more.
Made 2 batches today and love the taste and texture.
There may be a possible error in the recipe or I am totally misreading it. I can not find where it says to add the ginger. I accidentally left it out of the first batch. The second batch, I added it to the dry mixture. The GINGER is a must! It really adds that extra touch. So 4 stars with no ginger, 5 stars when you add it.
This is a nice basic lemon loaf recipe. The buttermilk makes it very tangy. Definitely a great starter. I wanted an easy recipe and I got it. I like a super strong lemon flavor so I added a half cup of lemon juice straight to the batter and to make it extra moist a package of lemon pudding/pie filling. I omitted the alcohol and I don't think it tasted like it was lacking anything. I would like to make it again using blueberries and a cream cheese icing I think that would be great! For this amount of batter I used it to make two 8x4 loaves for 50 minutes.
This recipe turned out GREAT. The loaf pans should be 9x5. I used 8x4 pans and used the extra batter for cupcakes. For one loaf I added poppyseeds and the other half I add partially thawed mango. I just furthur cubed the large frozen mango cubes that I had partially thawed (hard frozen mango is impossible to chop). I used ammaretto instead of orange liqueur and used sour cream thinned out with milk for the buttermilk I didn't have. The lemon glaze on top adds alot of sparkle to the loaves. Thanks for the great recipe!!
Absolutely delicious! Exactly what I was looking for. I think its very close to a pound cake consistancy. Very versitale I had to make changes since I didn't have all the ingredients. Didn't have orange liquer so I used lemon juice instead. Used ground ginger and added it to the wet ingredients. I reduced the lemon juice in the icing and added milk. Powder sugar was probably what was intended when listed as "white" sugar. Excellent cake! Light ginger taste goes very well will the zesty lemon.
I made this for a pot luck as a dessert. I dressed it up with crystalized grpaes and tangerines...so nice! My husband told me it was the best cake as it is not too sweet or tart...just right. Others have asked me for the recipe so I say it is a winner! Easy to make and it stays fresh for days.
love it , melts on ur mouth , i added 3 teaspoon of poppy seeds .
Simple to put together and as darned near close to perfect as can be created! I was aiming for maximum lemon flavor without using the glaze so in place of Grand Marnier I used limoncello which was right on target. This isn't what I'd describe as a true pound cake which follows the 1:1:1 ratio (one pound each flour sugar and eggs with no leavening ) either in ingredients or texture. The crumb is far more delicate and it's more airy than a traditional pound cake. It's actually a very refined complex product. What it does share in common with a pound cake is how moist it is. Because of the baking powder the moistness is there with no trace of heaviness. Because I'm diabetic I skipped the additional sugar that the glaze would have added and it was never missed. The result was full of fresh lemon flavor. If you have limoncello an Italian lemon liqueur (I always keep a bottle in the freezer. Makes a fabulous summer aperatif!) I heartily recommend using it in place of the Grand Marnier which although most likely delicious too lends an orange flavor. I aimed to underscore not distract from the lemony taste. Topped the cake with home made strawberry ice cream and it was a dessert fit to make Escoffier weep!!
The glaze was the best part of this recipe and I will definitely use that again on another lemon cake. However the cake was just okay and I didn't get any "zesty" at all. Couldn't taste the acidity of the buttermilk the flavor of the Grand Marinier or the ginger's zing. I had high hopes but it is actually kind of blah.
