Lemon-Poppy Seed Pound Cake

This has been a busy week! I am still working on the three projects that I have going right now. Today is day 15 of my 30 days of consecutive running project (I have reached the half-way point!!!); I am still in Leviticus in my read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan (I am 6 days behind- but not to worry, I have been this far behind before and I will catch up); and I am still taking a picture a day for Project Life (while waiting for the Design A pages to become available again!).

One of my Facebook friends received a book for Christmas that she mentioned as 365 Days of Creativity, however I couldn't find that exact title anywhere.  She started a blog to provide accountability and to document her artistic and creative journey with the book. Apparently there is a prompt every day to get you started: make something out of money, make something out of an old book, create something depicting something you saw in a dream. It sounds like so much fun. I just can't figure out how I could make time for one more thing that has to be done daily. I am considering using the book in a different way, maybe a project a week. I ordered the book that I think she is using from Amazon and will decide what to do with it when it arrives. 

Last night I made 2 Lemon-Poppy Seed Pound Cakes, one for a friend who had surgery and one for Parker and Dean. Apparently I have made it before because in the cookbook beside the title I had written "very good". I don't know if everyone does this, but my mom and my grandmother would write a quick two word review along with noting a different cooking time or oven temperature beside recipes they liked. My grandmother would also add the date and make note if it was served at a holiday dinner. I have continued the two word notation.

My two cakes came out more like a lemon-poppy seed bread than a cake, I don't know why. Regardless of the texture, Dean and Parker consumed the cake entirely (minus my one slice) in about 3 hours. I thought there would be some left for today, but sadly NO.

 prep time: 25 minutes, cook: 1 hour

Cooking spray
1 tsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup  butter, softened
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
1 T. grated lemon rind
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Ts. poppy seeds
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
2/3 cup powdered sugar
4 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat an 8x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray; dust with 1 tsp. flour
3. Beat granulated sugar and butter with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 4 minutes). Add egg whites and egg, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in lemon rind and vanilla. Lightly spoon 1 2/3 cups flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine 1 2/3 cups flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan, bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack, remove from pan. Poke holes in top of cake using a wooden skewer. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl, brush over warm cake. cool completely. Yield: 12 servings. CALORIES: 226, FAT 6.7g, CARB 38.2g

This recipe is from the book All-New Cooking Light. My pans were 9x5, I always cook for less time and check with a toothpick, my cakes were ready at 50 minutes rather than an hour probably due to the different pan size.

Happy Baking!