Lemon-almond pound cake comes with servings for all

“I followed your pound cake recipe and it was an absolute failure,” she said. “I trusted you and your recipe, and you wasted my time and my money.”

The recipe to which she referred was a classic pound cake, made with a pound of sugar (about 2 cups), a pound of eggs (about eight large eggs) and a pound of flour (about 3 and three-quarters cups). I had made it dozens of times and I knew it worked.

This was a pickle indeed. Like most of us, I dislike having anyone angry with, and disappointed in, me. Still, I learned in my days as the editor of a community weekly newspaper that perhaps the best way to dissipate that anger is simply to listen.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened,” I said.

“Well, your recipe called for so much sugar,” the caller said. “I’m trying to watch the calories, so I substituted Splenda.”

Uh-oh, I thought. The sugar in a pound cake recipe is more than a sweetener; it is an essential part of the cake’s structure. While sugar substitutes can reduce the calorie count in a recipe, and while many sugar substitutes claim to bake just like sugar, in some cases this substitution can create a problem.

The angry caller continued after my “uh huh.”

“I don’t think butter is healthy,” she said. “So I substituted tub margarine.”

Oh dear. Spreadable margarine is made that way by whipping in air, and sometimes water. Both would change the chemical make-up of the recipe significantly.

“Uh-huh,” I said again, this time with a sinking heart.

“My doctor has told me to watch my cholesterol,” the caller said. “So I switched out the eggs with egg substitute.” Egg substitutes are typically egg whites and a lot of chemicals. It’s the yolks, their function as an emulsifier, and their protein that contribute to a cake’s structure.

Well, dang. My angry caller had made changes that she thought made sense, but she didn’t understand the chemistry of baking. She hadn’t made my recipe at all. It was no surprise to me that she hadn’t had success with it.

Now the question was, how do I respond to this angry caller?

In this case, I told her that I was sorry to hear that she wasn’t pleased with my recipe, but that she hadn’t prepared it as written. Still, I said, I would be happy to personally reimburse her for the cost of the wasted ingredients if she wished.

That surprised her, and her voice softened. “You don’t need to do that,” she said. “But what went wrong?”

We had a gratifying conversation about the science of baking chemistry and why her substitutions virtually guaranteed her failure. By the time we concluded the conversation, she was no longer angry. That was my main success, with the minor victory of my vindication.

This week, I’m sharing a lemon-almond pound cake with a very lemony glaze. It, too, works beautifully if you prepare it as the recipe directs. I hope you’ll like it.

Lemon-almond cream cheese pound cake

Makes about 24 servings

This is a big cake, suitable for your largest Bundt or tube pan, or for two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans.

It is ineffably luxe and pillowy, with an extremely tender crumb. Take the time to beat the sugar, butter, and cream cheese very well before proceeding – the mixture should be fluffy and white, and if you taste a bit, you should sense no graininess from the sugar.

The corn syrup in the glaze makes it shiny and helps it harden. Let the cake cool completely before adding the glaze. The cake will keep, tightly covered, at room temperature for about three days.

Ingredients

3 cups sugar

1 ¼ cups butter, softened (3 sticks)

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons almond extract

2 teaspoons lemon extract

Generous pinch of salt

6 large eggs

3 cups cake flour, or 2 and two-thrids cups of all-purpose flour plus ª cup cornstarch

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon corn syrup

½ teaspoon lemon extract

Juice of ½ medium lemon, about 2 tablespoons

Preparation

Prepare the cake: Spray a 12-cup tube pan or Bundt cake pan or two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans with baking spray.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine sugar, butter, and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. Beat well to combine, continuing until the mixture is almost white and very fluffy, about five minutes.

Beat in the lemon juice, almond extract, and lemon extract. Stir in the salt.

One by one, beat in the eggs, mixing well after each addition so that no streaks of yellow show. This step is important; your cake will be leaden if you try to beat in all the eggs at once.

When the eggs are fully incorporated, beat in the flour, mixing until no streaks of flour show. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan(s) and tap them robustly on a hard surface to knock out any air bubbles.

Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. If you are using a deep pan, such as a tube pan or Bundt pan, the cake may need an additional 10 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter. Allow the cake to cool completely before proceeding with the glaze. To make the glaze, combine the ingredients in a small bowl. You can prepare this while the cake is cooling but stir the glaze before using.

After the cake is glazed, garnish with grated lemon zest or slices of lemon if desired.