As promised, here’s my report on the lemon pound cake that I made this weekend. First, the recipe. I made a double batch of this Perfect Poundcake recipe and added 2 tbsp lemon zest in with the dry ingredients. (So if you’re making a single recipe, just add 1 tbsp lemon zest.) To alter the recipe for high altitude baking, I followed these instructions from CookingLight.com:

• increase the oven temperature to 375
• decrease the liquid (in this case just the milk) by 2 tbsp for each cup used
• decrease each cup of sugar by 1 tbsp
• decrease each teaspoon of baking powder by 1/8 tsp
• decrease the baking time by 5 minutes. This was not exactly true for me. After adjusting for the altitude, I set my timer for 50 minutes. It was a good thing I checked the oven after 33 minutes had passed, because both layers were done with 17 minutes to spare!

To give the cake the proper amount of lemon flavor, I followed these additional instructions from Amanda:

• When the cake is almost done baking (about 5 min left), make lemon syrup. Heat 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Keep warm until cake is baked.
• When the cake comes out of the oven, put it on a cooling rack (in the pan), poke it with a fork all over, and brush on 1/2 of the syrup. Let cool 10 min.
• Invert the cake out onto the cooling rack (it helps to grease it a bit), poke it again and brush on the rest of the syrup.
• Let it cool completely, wrap it tight in plastic wrap, and let it sit 24 hours so the syrup can distribute evenly.

The next day, once the syrup had soaked in, I assembled the cake. As you can see from the picture, I used raspberry jam for the filling (Bonne Maman, to be specific) and I frosted it with Cool Whip. Helpful tip for those of you who have never before frosted with Cool Whip. You cannot take it out of the freezer and immediately begin to frost with it. If you want it to be a spreadable consistency, you have to let it defrost in the fridge for four hours. Do not defrost it on the countertop, or it will become too liquidy. Amanda and I learned that the hard way a couple of years ago.

All in all, this first high altitude baking effort was a success. The cake came out nice and moist, not too heavy but not too light either. And man that lemon syrup added a nice flavor kick. The lady in the picture is Marci (my gracious host while I am job searching). The cake was for her birthday. I decorated with raspberries and peaches, but I think blueberries or strawberries would also have been tasty.