Lemons and Berries and Cakes! OH MY!

Earlier this week, I made a lemon pound cake for a friend of mine. I used a recipe I found on one of my favorite sites, Foodgawker.com and it was absolutely delicious! Very moist and just the perfect combination of sweet and tart. For the original recipe click here.

So as I was garnishing the center of the cake, I began to think about the glut of strawberries that I still had from my berry picking adventure. With this thought I sat down to sip on the lemonade I had made myself from the leftover juice for the cake...and from that point on I was completely unable to get the thought of Strawberry Lemonade Cake out of my head! So today I set out to make that thought a reality. I tweaked the original recipe for this delicious lemon cake to include strawberries and went straight to work experimenting in my kitchen.

Great Success! The final product definitely exceeded my expectations, though it did take 2 attempts to get the lemon to pop the way I wanted. This cake finally turned out with just the right mix of flavors. It is dense and moist and perfect with a cup of coffee for breakfast or with ice cream for dessert, mmmm! So enough tooting my own horn (toot! toot!) below is my adapted recipe. Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemonade Pound Cake

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 sticks unsalted butter - at room temperature

1 3/4 cups sugar

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp lemon zest

1 1/2 tsp pure lemon extract

1 1/2 cup fresh chopped strawberries

Strawberry Lemon Syrup

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup fresh strawberry juice

3/4 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.

2. Butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan (or 12 mini bundts)

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together twice.

4. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the lemon zest, strawberries, and lemon extract, stirring well after each is added.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes.

6. While the cake is cooling in the pan, prepare the strawberry lemon syrup by bringing the lemon juice, strawberry juice and sugar to a boil in a saucepan, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved.

7. Invert the cake onto a rack positioned over a baking sheet. Poke holes all over the top of the cake with a wooden skewer. Very slowly pour the syrup over the cake, it will seep through the holes and into the cake. Allow cake to cool to room temperature. Slice and enjoy!