#66 Lemon Pound Cake and Mrs. Abby Fisher

My first lemon pound cake. It was easy! I honestly am not that much into cakes, but I like having it once in a while. Children love it, and so it is always good to know how to make your own home made cake using organic ingredients. And we always have fun baking.  I like this recipe, its great! I will be making more of this. I've always been curious how bakeries make the top of the pound cakes glossy and sweet, I discovered the method using this recipe. :)

LEMON POUND CAKE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Mix together 1 cup sugar and butter.
2. Add eggs and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, mix well.
3. Add salt, flour and baking soda to mixture.
4. Add milk.
5. Bake at 325 F in a well greased loaf pan for 1 hour, or until golden brown.
6. Mix 1/3 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar.
7. Use toothpick to make holes in top of cake and drizzle lemon juice and sugar mixture over the top of the cake when removed from oven.
8. Serve warm or cool.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

 

 

Somebody touched it to make sure it's ready, and left marks- Me :)

Now I know how to make the top of the cake glossy like this.

It is achieved by drizzling lemon juice and sugar on top immediately after taking it out from the oven.

 

 

Soft, tasty, it was a success the first time!

Pound cakes originated in Great Britain in the 1700's. The original recipe called for 1 pound butter, 1 pound flour, 1 pound sugar and 1 pound eggs. Back in the days, many people could not read, so calling it "Pound Cake" made it easy to remember. As years went by, the amounts of the ingredients were reduced, because a pound of every thing will yield a very big cake!

In the US, March 4th  is the National Pound Cake Day. :) As I read more about it's history in the US, I found a great story related to pound cake recipes. This story is about Mrs. Abby Fisher, who wrote a cookbook in the 1800's entitled: "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, soups, pickles, preserves, etc." wherein she included two pound cake recipes. In the 1800's, it was a popular dessert in the Southern  States. What makes her story amazing is that, she was born a slave in Little Mobile, GA and did not know how to read and write, but her lack of education did not stop her from achieving her dreams. She reached San Francisco after the civil war and created a new life. Her friends helped her write and publish her cookbook with 160 recipes, which was the first ever published by an African American. Noted culinary historian Karen Hess is credited with historical notes for her research on Mrs. Abby Fisher  in 1984, in the newly reprinted books by Applewood books who acquired it in 1995. As I dug deeper, I found the full text of Mrs. Abby Fisher's recipe book entered on archive.org. It's a precious collection of recipes. Heartwarming. I plan to make some of her dishes. Here is the link. Enjoy!