Four. That’s the number of times I’d tried to make Lori Longbotham’s Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake. It’s also the number of times I have been reduced to a quivering, demoralized failure on account of it. The thing never — and I mean never — would come out of the pan for me, and it would either be too brown on the outside or mush inside. While the cake does make an excellent base for trifle, I’d begun to have a highly antagonistic, somewhat unhealthy relationship with the recipe. I couldn’t stop myself from going back to it every now and then, hoping that all those past misunderstandings could be left aside, one of us would finally realize the error of our ways, and the cake would come out perfectly. Maybe we all have recipes like that…for whatever reason, the stars never line up correctly and they fail over and over, while you sit dolefully in the corner and whack your head against the butcher block, wondering what you keep doing wrong.
While some may be tempted to stretch that metaphor even further (to personal relationships, perhaps?), let me say instead that unlike my dear Moz, I did get what I wanted this time. At least in terms of pound cake. And I am here to sing the praises of Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake at last. Whether it was that whispered incantation over the Kitchenaid, the half-inch of Crisco I smeared on the pan so the bloody thing wouldn’t stick again, or just dumb luck, who cares — victory is mine, all mine!
I suppose my slightly unhinged gushing might sound a bit silly to someone who is lucky to never screw up a recipe, or who (wisely?) doesn’t keep returning to one that only makes her feel like a schlump. But there are few things sweeter than the rush of success after many failures, so I intend to milk this little triumph for as long as possible. The cake has a beautifully tight golden crumb and delicious tart lemony flavor, thanks to being generously soaked in lemon syrup. Since I made the cake for a party, I added a cosmetically-enhancing confectioner’s sugar glaze, but it was really unnecessary as the cake is lemony and delicious enough without it.
I think I’ve said about enough, though — it really is just about perfect. And maybe striving for perfection really can pay off, as long as you don’t mind pounding away a little dignity in exchange.