It's been considerably less than 24 hours since I've sworn off grocery shopping for a week but I feel the shakes starting to creep in. What have I done? Cinco de Mayo is coming up! The farmer's markets are just getting into the swing of things, and my husband says he's running out of deodorant. Does deodorant count as a grocery store purchase or will I be depending on the good folks at Pinterest to come up with some DIY version made with baking soda and grass clippings?
Just calm down, Becca. You can do this, right? One thing at a time. You know what will make you feel better (and maybe help you stop talking to yourself?)? Cake. How about a nice simple lemon pound cake to take the edge off. Start slow and easy.
Ingredients (all at room temperature):
2 C cake flour
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts cream of tartar
lemon zest from 2 lemons
Whisk above in medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer combine:
1 C of sugar
2 sticks of butter
Cream butter and sugar on medium for about 3 minutes using handy dandy stand mixer.
Add 4 eggs 1 at a time mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl from time to time. Add 1 ts of vanilla.
**If you crack the eggs and put them in a separate bowl before you add them to the mixer, you'll save yourself a huge headache should some shell brake off and escape. It's much easier to fish the errant shell from a separate smaller bowl than hunt them down in the larger bowl with all the sugar and butter in there, as well.**
Stir in flour mixture (gradually but steadily) on lowest setting until just mixed. Scrape down bowl 1/2 way through and once more at the end. Transfer batter into a greased (buttered) loaf pan and bake for about an hour at 325°
While cake is baking, make the glaze.
Lemon Glaze:
1/2 C sugar
Juice from two lemons (At first I thought three, but then, conservation is the name of the game.)
Bring to a boil and stir (in small sauce pan) over medium flame until dissolved and thickened to a syrup. Let cool.
When cake is finished, take out of the oven, let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Poke holes in the cake with a wooden skewer, remove from pan, and transfer to cooling wrack.
Brush and drizzle cake with glaze and allow to finish cooling. Serve or wrap tightly in plastic wrap to serve later.
Okay. That should settle my nerves for a while.
