Citrus Pound Cake

I made this for home fellowship, which I did not get to attend this week due to my last few days of orientation at St Joe's. When I saw this recipe, I was like, oh good, a dessert recipe I can make without having to buy anything (because usually I do end up needing a few things no matter what the dessert is)...I guess I didn't closely read the ingredients, because it calls for lemon yogurt, which of course I don't have on hand...so we had to make an emergency trip to Paradis (and then stopped at a yard sale that just happened to be on our way home) to get it. Also the glaze calls for candied lemon and orange peels, but I just left those out because they sounded expensive...also I have no idea where I could procure these. I made the cake on Thursday, since I knew I would be sleeping for most of Friday, and made the glaze Friday afternoon. This recipe is from the April/May 2011 Simple & Delicious.

Citrus Pound Cake
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
6 eggs (doesn't it sound great so far?!?)
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp grated orange peel (I happened to have both of these already from previous dessert recipes)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (8 oz) lemon yogurt (of course they didn't have 8 oz cups of this at Paradis so I had to go with 6 oz)
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp finely chopped candied lemon peel
2 tbsp finely chopped candied orange peel

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (also, once it's mixed, you can leave it sitting here for 30 minutes at this point to run and get yogurt and stop at a yard sale). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, lemon peel, and orange peel. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; add to the creamed mixture alternately with yogurt. Beat just until combined.

Transfer to a greased and floured 10 inch fluted tube pan. Bake at 325 for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes back clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and enough lemon juice to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over cake. Sprinkle with candied lemon and orange peel.

Overall very easy to make, smelled great while it was cooking, and looked nice too. However when I tried to remove it from the pan, about 1/4 of it remained behind. Probably this is because I used cooking spray instead of shortening and flour to grease my pan. I never use shortening, and hardly ever have a problem, except for this time, I guess. I ended up having to very carefully extricate the top part that stuck to the pan and put it on top like a big hot citrus-y puzzle piece, and then when it cooled, glaze-gluing it together.

So Steve came home with about a third of this cake. He said it wasn't because people didn't like it, but because Becky cut it in small slices. Believable. I had some of it last night, and I thought it was kind of dry. Steve would never agree to this, in fact he said to my face that he didn't think it was too dry. He is so well trained =o) So this morning I asked Becky what she thought, if it was kind of dry. She said it was, but that it was still good, especially the glaze. I think it was dry because the only lemon yogurt Paradis had was fat free, and it was only 6 oz instead of 8. So if I did make this again, I would use at least low fat, if not regular yogurt. Also the cake wasn't all that citrus-y tasting, either. So I'm not sure yet if this one is a keeper or not.