Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Poppy Seed Buttercream

I forget.

I sometimes forget that we have a thing here.  A thing that’s more of a weird Internet friendship than a simple fling.  Forgive my forgetting.

I’ve gotten a lot of urgent emails and tweets and random Internet shouts about why why why WHY I picked up and moved my little world to New Orleans.  (I also respect the fact that some of you couldn’t care less… that’s cool.)

The answer is probably far less exciting that you’d like it to be.  I moved from California to New Orleans because I wanted to.  I wanted a change in place, a jolt of inspiration, more crawfish on my plate, adventure.  I wanted to feel out of my element and get to know a new place.  New Orleans, with its little bit of magic, seems like the place my heart wants to be.  So… this is that!

Can I be honest with you about something?  The more people asked me why I was moving to New Orleans, the more I wanted to hold that information close and keep it to myself.  I try to keep a balance of what I share with the big wide Internet (with its supporters and haters) and what I keep to myself.  Mostly I’m trying to protect you from things like… my weird love for One Direction and all those times I feel too many feelings.

I’ve created a place where I can share, where we can share, where we can hang out and bake together.  Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want all of the nitty-gritty.  I just forget that sometimes I have to explain myself. It totally makes sense that you would want to know the why.  (Again, it also makes sense if you don’t give a care.)

Anyhow… I’m still trying to figure this whole ‘sharing on the Internet’ thing out… six years into the game.

At least now you know the not terribly interesting reason I moved to New Orleans.  Did I mention the crawfish?  That has a lot to do with it.

I’m still figuring out how I want to photograph in my new space, I’m learning the quirks of my new oven (which are many), and I’m trying to figure out if there’s a single surface that my cat can’t jump on.  I appreciate that you’re along for that ride.

Learning curve: steep.  Still there’s cake.

Oh, all the flavors we can pull from a lemon.

Lemon zest is rubbed together with the granulated sugar for this pound cake.  The essential oils really add a kick of lemon.  Definitely don’t skip the lemon + sugar rub down.

When our newly crafted lemon sugar, we cream butter into the most lovely, sweet and whipped cake fat.

It’s not called pound cake because it’s fat free.

The batter has some body!  It’s not all the way dense, but it’s a thick (not pourable) batter.

I have a thing against springform pans.  I’m fully against them where cheesecake and water-baths are involved.  You want me to wrap this pan in foil in order to bake a cake and it’s not going to work and I’m going to have a soggy cheesecake that I had to wait a full day to eat!? NO.

I’ve been burned (not literally) by the unreliable springform pan one too many times.

BUT!  For making a thick batter pound cake… springform and I are friends again.

A regular 9-inch round cake pan will also work very well, and will save you lots of feelings and emotions.

Our simple, single layer cake.  It smells soooo good!  Scratch and sniff, you wish.

While the cake was baking, I whipped up a simple buttercream.

You know the deal… butter and powdered sugar, lemon juice for continuity, salt for balance, and poppy seeds because we’re fancy.

You know what’s nice?  Just letting it be a single layer cake.  Not fuss about stacking and frosting the sides.  Just a tender and sweet lemon pound cake with a generous layer of creamy frosting.

The poppy seeds add a nice crunch.  If you’re feeling extra poppy, feel free to add an additional tablespoon to the cake batter.

This cake is not light and fluffy like a lemon layer cake.  The crumb is a bit more dense, but still soft and moist.  Take care not to over bake the sucker.  There are some crimes that even buttercream can’t hide.