Lemon Pound cake ou la version americaine du Quatre-quarts français au citron

This is the first English post on my blog. I had a couple of US guest posts but nothing really serious because I've been lazy, shy and very doubtful about writing in English here.
Lazy because English is not my mother tongue and no matter how hard I tried, I've never been able to appreciate my English writting skills. Hopefully It will change.
Shy because 99% of the visitors of the blog are coming from France and reading an English post is not one of your favorite thing in the world. Don't pretend it is ;)
At last, doubtful because I am a very neurotic worried person who always underestimates her potential.



So here is what I propose. I threw my doubts, shiness and lasiness away and maybe we can start a new kind of experiment. Afterall, that's what blogging is all about!

To start this new era, I thought that a recipe would be a good one. Not too complex yet very useful for (hopefully) new comers and long time followers. French readers may not understand why I'm posting a recipe about Quatre-quarts, litterally Fourt-fourths, one of the easiest recipe ever. One of those we learn in 3rd grade. One of the most popular at school in France along with the very famous gâteau au yaourt (yogurt cake). 



The name quart-quart comes from the proportions of ingredients in the recipe. It's made with equal parts sugar, butter, eggs and flour.
In my case, One fourth flour (250g), one fourth butter (250g), one fourth sugar (250g) and 4 eggs.
That's the recipe, as simple as i t should be. The recipe my mom used to make is a quatre-quart aux pommes, apple fourths-fours and sliced apples are added to the mix at the very end. 
The secret of the smoothyness comes from the eggs. The whites are separated from the yolks and then beaten. They are eventually added to the flour+egg yolks mix.

The American version doesn't separate yolks from white eggs and the ingredients are combined together. In this case softness comes from buttermilk, milk and of course butter. Somehow the American version tends to cover the cake with a sugar syrup called glaze.
Before trying the recipe with the glaze, I saw it as a trick to make the cake moist. I was wrong. The cake by itself was moist enough, and the glaze added a very nice tart taste. The recipe is good without it, but Americans know how to make things look cool. Let you self go, relax and allow yourself a little bit of cooliness aka glaze ! 




Ingredients for the cake:
-2 sticks salted butter (226g)
-2 cups sugar (240g)
-4 extra-large eggs
- grated lemon zest from 5 lemons
-2 cups all-purpose flour (240g)
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt
-3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
-1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Ingredients for the glaze (double the measure to completely cover the cake):
-1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted. 
-juice of 2 lemons 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a kouglof pan. 
In a bowl, beat the butter with the sugar at medium speed until fluffy, 5 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions. When smooth, add the lemon zest.
In a second bowl, sift the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a third bowl, combine the lemon juice, milk and vanilla.
Add flour and milk mixtures alternately to butter and sugar mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes.

Comments

[Jonathan 27.04.2011 à 17:06]

1) the cake looks amazing.
2) way to go stepping out of your comfort zone. we should all do that every so often.

[verO 28.04.2011 à 15:33]

Une recette inratable et indémodable ! Un basique indispensable.
Pour ceux qui pèsent en gr et qui désirent respecter la recette originale du quart-quarts, il est plus simple de d'abord peser les oeufs qui ont un poids variable (sans la coquille). Le résultat déterminera le poids de chacun des trois autres ingrédients.
On obtient ainsi un véritable quart-quarts composé de 4 parts vraiment égales.
Bien à toi
verO

ps: en français ou en anglais ton blog reste dans mes flux :-)

[Danny 29.04.2011 à 10:12]

mmm... i love lemon cake!

[Deli 29.04.2011 à 12:59]

Jonathan, Thank you!

VerO, merci ! J'espère que les autres posts en anglais plairont tout autant.

Danny, I know you do! :)

[kty 03.05.2011 à 11:52]

Well done ! And somme crazy ? French people do like reading English ! Thanks for the "recette".

[argone 09.05.2011 à 03:53]

merci pour la recette, ça a l'air délicieux ... et si simple !