Mini Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cakes

When you buy a bag of Meyer lemons, you need to use that bag of Meyer lemons.  I made these lovely lemon pudding cakes a few weeks ago and loved the flavor of the Meyer lemons, sweeter than a regular lemon but still tart.  How could I go wrong by using them in a lemon pound cake?

Meyer-Lemon-Pound-Cake-Slic

I’ve been on a kick with this cookbook lately.  It’s a great resource and it’s where I found the recipe for this pound cake.  I’ve made a cold oven pound cake before that is really special, but is pretty involved, whipping egg whites and such.  This cake come together quickly and uses a food processor to mix the wet ingredients so that curdling isn’t an issue thanks to the quick mixing speed.

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You can make this pound cake in an 8-inch loaf pan or in mini loaf pans, which is what I chose to do so that I could give these as gifts.  I added lemon juice, lemon zest and poppy seeds to the classic pound cake recipe to make these cakes.  From what I can tell, this would create a fantastic plain pound cake as well and I’ll probably be trying it soon.

The flavor of this cake is perfectly lemony.  The texture is light and the crust is slightly crunchy and totally delicious. I think it’s sugaring the pans, one of my favorite things to do with quick breads, and now with pound cake.  The small loaf pans allow you to have a small piece that still looks complete instead of cutting a larger piece in half.  I think these would be perfect for a brunch, bay shower, tea party, etc.

Meyer-Lemon-Pound-Cakes

Mini Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cakes

Adapted slightly from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Makes 1 8-inch pound cake or 4 mini loaves

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 4 teaspoons Meyer lemon juice
  • zest of one lemon
  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 sticks of butter, melted and hot
  • 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
  • 6-9 teaspoons Meyer lemon juice

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Grease and sugar your pan/s.
  3. To make the cakes: Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl, then set aside.
  4. In the food processor combine the sugar, lemon juice, zest, eggs and vanilla and mix until combined, about 10 seconds.  With the processor still running, pour in the melted butter through the tube in a slow, steady stream.  Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
  5. Sift 1/3 to half of the flour mixture over the wet ingredients and whisk until almost no flour is visible.  Repeat with the remaining flour in 1 or 2 more additions.  Whisk in the poppyseds just to combine and be careful not to overmix.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan/s.  If you use mini loaf pans, 2 cups of batter each is about right.
  7. Bake for 40 minutes (for mini loaves) and 50-60 minutes for an 8-inch loaf until a cake tester comes out with a few crumbs.
  8. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.
  9. To make the glaze: after sifting the sugar add lemon juice, start with 1 tablespoon, then add juice one teaspoon at a time until it reaches the consistency you desire.  Drizzle onto the cooled cakes.