Another Edition of the Pink and Yellow Season and What I Am Thankful For

So, this will be the last of the Pink and Yellow Season posts for another year. For this week I am posting about making a Lemon Yogurt Pound Cake and my litany rosary of thankfuls.


To begin with, the litany rosary of thankfuls.

• I'm thankful my parents are still around. I'm so fortunate that I can still pick up the phone and talk to them as if I were still a 20-something kid.

• I'm thankful for my sister; I know she's got my back.

• I'm thankful for aunts and uncles and cousins and other family members who share that quirky gene.

• I'm thankful for friends who love me just the way I am.

• I'm thankful for my impatient kitty who wants his lunch - now.

• I'm thankful I have the wherewithal to spend time and resources exploring and experimenting with different lemony recipes for my pink and yellow birthday season.

I'm thankful for much more, but those are the biggies, so I'm just leaving them there to think on a while.

Now, for the Lemon Yogurt Pound Cake. Here is the link to the original recipe. But you know, there were a lot of things in this recipe that seemed a little overdone and pretentious, a little more expensive than I wanted to be, too. Maybe they weren't, but I chose to do things a little differently. Besides, the original recipe seemed a little light on the lemony flavoring for me, so I added lemon wherever I could easily (like substituting lemon juice instead of milk in the glaze). So here is what I did:

Cake ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon regular salt
1 cup lemon yogurt (regular old diet Yoplait. Takes 2 containers to make a cup. I did half Greek lemon and half diet Yoplait regular yogurt - they were on sale.)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (Or thereabouts, depending on what you get from 2-3 lemons)
1/2 cup canola oil

Candied Lemons:
1 Lemon
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 5-inch or 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. I didn't flour or use parchment paper because  I wasn't worried about getting it out of the pan or presentation or anything.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another medium-sized bowl, whisk together the yogurt, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs and lemon zest.

3. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and then with a rubber spatula, fold the oil into the batter, making sure it’s completely incorporated.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.




5. Meanwhile, I candied the lemon slices, but if I were to do this again, I'd candy the lemon slices first to make sure they're set by the time the cake is ready. It's about 1 : 1 : 1 or 1 lemon to 1 cup water to 1 cup sugar. a) Clean off and slice lemons. b) Put water in a saucepan with lemon slices, bring to simmer for a minute or so (I actually let them simmer for a few minutes because I forgot about them). c) Carefully remove the slices with a pair of tongs and transfer to a plate or something.  d) Pour water into a container to measure how much you have and scoop out the seeds. e) Add the lemon water back to saucepan with an equal amount of sugar. f) Layer in lemon slices. Let simmer for a while, say 30- 45 minutes or an hour. The water/sugar mixture reduces a little. Lemons will be translucent. g) Remove the lemons from the mixture and transfer to a cooling rack or a parchment-lined baking sheet (I just used a plate - see what I mean about pretentious with this recipe?). h) After the lemon water/sugar mix has cooled a bit, then pour it through a cheesecloth or coffee filter or mesh filter into a container and put in the fridge. You now have lemony simple syrup for cocktails and such.

Candied lemon slices all pretty on their own.

4. The glaze: Measure the powdered sugar into a medium bowl and run a fork through it a few times. Stir in a tablespoon of lemon juice. Stir well. Stir in a half tablespoon of lemon juice. Stir well. Then the last bit, only if you need it (depending on if you want runnier or thicker).

5. I like to put the glaze on the cake while it's still warm. And then I garnished with the lemons.

Pound cake with glaze. I made my glaze a little thicker.

With glaze and candied lemon slices. I used to two lemons to come up with this many candied slices.

The result is a very moist loaf cake and it was just right lemony for me with all the additions of lemon I added (lemon yogurt instead of plain, lemon juice instead of milk, etc.). Careful not to over bake, though. I noticed on mine that at 40 minutes it still looked a little undone on top, so I put it in for another five minutes. It wasn't overbaked in the middle, but outside bottom and sides were a definite 16th inch of brown, not burned, but brown. So, maybe 42 minutes next time?

And that's it for postings for the Pink and Yellow Season this year. Hope you've enjoyed the recipes I've shared.