We were going to make loaves of Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake for the church coffee hour and slice them for serving. It would be a bit easier in preparation, but those savings would just transfer to more difficultly later. Instead, we decided to make what we’re calling pound cake bites, basically mini cakes made in mini-muffin tins. If you want to make this pound cake as loaves, it’s pretty easy.
For loaves, simply butter two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans, line with parchment, and butter the parchment. Then, instead of filling all kinds of mini-muffin cups, you can scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 60-75 minutes. Let the cakes cool completely in the pans before trying to remove them. If you want to go with bite-sized morsels, we can’t recommend strongly enough using a piping bag. It makes filling mini-muffin cups so easy, and, if you use disposable piping bags, there’s no clean up. We buy our piping bags online in rolls of 100 and wouldn’t give them up.
This recipe is based on the pound cake recipe in The Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, with a slight modification to include lemon flavor and poppy seeds. We use this recipe simply because it’s the best.
Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake Bites
Ingredients
- 2 medium lemons or 1 large
- 400 g 2 cups sugar (2 cups)
- 400 g 4 sifted cups cake flour (4 sifted cups)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 Tbs poppy seeds
- 9 large eggs
- 454 g butter, room temperature (1 pound)
Instructions
- Place the sugar in a medium bowl. Using a fine grater or zester, remove lemon zest and stir into sugar. Cover and let stand overnight. Squeeze lemon and strain out seeds. Refrigerate lemon juice.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cream of tartar, and poppy seeds. Set aside.
- Crack eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your hands, gently scoop out yolks and transfer to a small bowl. Let eggs come to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Line mini-muffin pans with papers.
- Fit a stand mixer with the whisk attachment and beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and whites are still glossy. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside. Wash and dry mixer bowl.
- Place butter in stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium until smooth and shiny, about 60 seconds. Slowly add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating in each one thoroughly before adding the next.
- With mixer still running, slowly add lemon juice and beat in.
- Add flour mixture in four additions, pulsing the mixer at first, then mixing on low until just combined before adding more of the flour mixture. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate any remaining flour.
- Fold in egg whites in four additions. Transfer to a piping bag and fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
- Bake 16-18 minutes, rotating from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, or until the cakes spring back when lightly touched and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from muffin pans and cool completely.
Ingredient discussion:
Real butter is mandatory. Do not use any substitute. And, make sure it’s unsalted. Cake flour is nice to use, but all-purpose will work in a pinch; just realize that your cake bites won’t be as light. Ideally, use good eggs, egg that come from pastured-raised hens, or, even better, your neighbor’s flock. Finally, don’t even think about using bottled lemon juice; it just doesn’t taste good. Instead, use fresh lemons, preferably organic ones, since you’ll be using the zest, too.
Procedure in detail:
Make lemon sugar. We did this the day before we were planing to bake, but you can do it right before baking. For us, it fit right in with making something else that needed a bit of lemon juice, so we figured we’d get a jump on these pound cake bites. Measure out the sugar into a medium bowl and zest the lemons. Add the zest to the sugar and stir in. Juice the lemon and strain out the seeds. Set aside both the sugar and juice.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium to large bowl (we used a 4-cup measuring cup), whisk together the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and the poppy seeds. Set this aside for now, too.
Separate eggs. Here’s how to separate a lot of eggs. Simply crack all of the eggs into a bowl, then use your hand to scoop out the yolks. It’s fast and easy. We knew we were going to be whipping the egg whites first, so we cracked all the eggs into the bowl of our stand mixer, then scooped out the yolks and placed them in a measuring cup with a spout so we could easily add them to the batter at the right time. Now that the eggs are separated, let them warm to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line mini-muffin pans with paper liners, too.
Whip egg whites. Place the whisk attachment on a stand mixer and start whipping the egg whites on medium-low to break them up. As they start to get foamy, increase the speed of the mixer to high and whip until the whites form stiff peaks when the beater is lifted, about 3 minutes. Transfer the whipped egg whites to another bowl for later and quickly wash out the mixer bowl.
Cream butter. Place the butter in the mixer bowl, and fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat the butter on medium speed until it’s smooth and shiny, about 60 seconds, provided your butter is room temperature.
Add lemon sugar. With the mixer on medium speed, slowly add the lemon sugar. If it has sat overnight, as ours had, the sugar will be a bit lumpy, with clumps around the lemon zest. Don’t worry; those lumps will break apart. Continue to beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time.
Add egg yolks. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating in each one thoroughly before adding the next. Take your time, as the mixture is forming a fluffy emulsion full of air pockets. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Add lemon juice. With the mixer still running at medium speed, slowly add the lemon juice, allowing enough time for it to be completely incorporated into the mixture.
Mix in dry ingredients. Turn the mixer off, add about a quarter of the flour mixture at a time, pulse the mixer to start mixing, then mix on low until the flour is just incorporated before adding more. Do not over-mix, but scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure no unmixed flour remains.
Fold in egg whites. Add about a quarter of the egg whites at a time and fold into the batter. The first addition will help lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining egg whites. Work deftly but gently, trying to prevent the egg whites from deflating.
Pipe batter. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a 1/4 inch smooth tip, or, if you’re using a disposable bag, cut off the tip to make a 1/4 inch hole (unless you have a giant piping bag, you’ll need to fill the bag several times to use all the batter), and fill each muffin cup 3/4 full.
Bake. Slide into the oven and bake 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, or until the cake bites spring back when lightly touched, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. These pound cake bites will be quite pale.
Cool. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
We can’t imagine making these without a piping bag. It would drive us crazy trying to fill all those muffin cups with a spoon, but, with a piping bag, these are actually pretty fast and easy. And they are bite-sized, which people seem to appreciate. We’ll give this recipe only four stars, not because of the flavor or texture, but because pound cakes rely so much on technique for their lightness. You have to cream the butter and sugar until light, have a deft hand when folding in the egg whites, and work quickly at filling so the batter doesn’t deflate.
