Lemon Pound Cake with Candied Buddha Hand

How to make the best lemon pound cake,

This post is a revisit to the classic lemon pound cake. I added a little something more to this version to make this the best lemon pound cake ever! Some pound cakes can be heavy and dense. That is not the case with this recipe. It is light, sweet, and delicious! The x factor in this recipe is the addition of candied buddha hand into the cake batter. If you aren’t familiar with buddha hand citrus, it is like an alien lemon. it is a crazy looking lemon with tons of fingers growing out of its head. Instead of this citrus having juice it is basically used for its extremely strong zest. But you can slice the buddha hand and candied them and this allows you to utilize the whole fruit and not just the zest. You can decide to preserve the buddha hand in a more traditional salty way as well, but that would not be recommended for this recipe. Here is the recipe I hope you enjoy it!

Recipe Ingredients

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

1 cup butter softened 

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

3 cups sugar 

5 eggs 

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 lemon meyer lemons zest and juice

2 tsp of vanilla

1 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp of baking soda

1 cup of sour cream

pinch of salt

Candied Buddha Hand

1 buddha hand slice 1/8-1/4 inch thick

1 1/4 water

1 cup sugar

Icing

1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar

2 tbsp of lemon juice

1 tsp of water

Recipe Instructions

How to make candied Buddha’s Hand,

Bring small pot of water to a boil, place the sliced buddha hand in the boiling water and blanch for 3 seconds.  Strain off the water.  Repeat the same step two more times blanching and staring the buddha hand slices.  after 3 times add the measured water and sugar and bring to a boil.  Add the buddha's hand blanched slices to the pot.  Cook for 5-10 minutes and then pour into a preserve jar, sealed properly. 

How to make Lemon Pound Cake,

Preheat Oven 325 degrees. Cream together butter in sugar in a stand mixer for 2 to 3 minutes with a paddle attachment. Then add your eggs one at a time.  After all the eggs have incorporated add your oil, sour cream, lemon juice, zest, and vanilla.  Then mix together the salt and flour and fold that into the batter.  Finish with a 1/3 cup of chopped candied buddha hand. Mix thoroughly, then pour into a large greased bundt pan or two loaf pans.  Bake for about an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. When the pound cake is finished pull out of the oven and make little holes with a cake tester or toothpick.  Then drizzle the cake with the leftover buddha hand syrup on top of the pound cake using the toothpick to make more holes so the cake absorbs the syrup.  Then allow to cool for at least 20 minutes until you un-mold the cake.  You can make the icing while it is cooling.  Simply add the lemon juice and water to a bowl and stir in the powdered sugar.   Once un-molded allow it to cool another 5-10 minutes before adding the icing.  Serve and enjoy!