my friend janell loves Starbuck’s lemon loaf. her birthday was yesterday…so a couple of weeks ago i was searching for a recipe on the interwebs that would replicate her beloved lemon loaf. i came across this one…‘Better than Starbucks Lemon Pound Cake’ on the blog, Dozen Flours. the recipe itself was a little more labor intensive than i am used to, but i was willing to give it a shot for my friend. for example, besides zesting the lemons, i needed to segment them, which i had never done before. it wasn’t really that complicated, it just took some time. basically after you cut the rinds & pith off of the lemons, you cut the fruit out. i have never made a lemon recipe that called for chunks of the fruit to be in it….of course it made the lemon flavor cha-ching, so it was well worth the effort. i also had to throw my sugar into the food processor in order to make it ‘super fine’, something i had never heard of before. after the sugar was super fine, i had to use my hands to mix it together with the lemon zest. (that part was kind of fun.)
it was an adventure, this recipe. one i would not like to take often, but definitely worth it for a friend. i baked two loaves and cut one of them up into individual slices, then wrapped each slice in plastic wrap. i then put the loaf together, wrapped it up in foil and tissue paper, tied ribbon around it and stuck it in a gift bag. the idea was that janell could put the loaf in the freezer and pull out a slice at a time when she has the hankering for lemon loaf. i was very delighted with myself for coming up with idea and plan on offering to bake treats for other friends too so they can also have frozen goodies available to them when they so desire.
as far as whether my lemon pound cake compared to Starbuck’s, i guess you’d have to try it for yourself. but…those who did indulge in this cake did say mine was better, so….no horn tootin’ here.***
