Birthday Traditions + My "World Famous" Lemon Pound Cake

Whew! I’m worn out! We’ve almost finished birthday month at our house. No, we don’t celebrate MY birthday for the entire month. I wish we did since my birthday is my favorite day of the year. Starting in February, we have 5 birthdays in 3 weeks. This year we have a 10 year old, two 12 year old, a 14 year old, and a 40s something. It can be a LONG month. One way we make it special for each person, especially since we have twins, is to have birthday dinners. Each birthday kid gets to pick the family dinner for that night including dessert. I don’t typically limit them – whatever they say goes unless they want to add something after I’ve already been to the store. It is one of our kids’ favorite family traditions. The meals cover the gamut. This year it was:

· chicken pot pie with ice cream sundae

· hot dogs with ice cream cake (That was an experience making an ice cream cake)

· tacos and my “World Famous” Lemon Pound Cake (named world famous by the 10 year old)

· venison tenderloin, grape salad, homemade baked beans, and corn bread with sour cream coconut cake.

We’ve eaten pretty good this month. I’m sure you can see why the kids love their birthday dinners. It was a birthday tradition that wasn’t intentionally started. I just asked the kids what they wanted one year, and it has continued to grow to the point that we decided to keep it around. Aren’t those the best kind of traditions? I’d love to hear some of your family’s birthday traditions.

I know you are wondering about that “World Famous” Lemon Pound Cake. I really don’t think it is world famous. Actually, I’m pretty sure it isn’t. Let’s just say I’m expected to bring it to church potlucks. I made the mistake one time of not taking it, and I won’t ever do that again. Ha ha! This is the best picture I have of it. The cake doesn't normally stay around very long. Here we were taking some to a church friend who was sick.

The recipe came from my sweet friend and former co-worker. She graciously shared it with me, and I’ll graciously share it with you.

World Famous Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients

Lemon Pound Cake

• 3 sticks butter, softened

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened

• 3 cups sugar

• 6 eggs

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1-2 tsp lemon flavoring (the more lemon the better my hubby says)

Lemon Glaze

• 2-4 tsp of lemon flavoring

• 1 cup or so of lemon juice

• Powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Cream together butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and beat again until fluffy.

3. Add baking powder. Then alternate flour and eggs. I do 1 cup of flour and then 2 eggs. Repeat this two more times.

4. Grease and flour your cake pan or do like me and use the Pam spray with flour in in it.

5. Pour batter into a tube pan. This recipe will overflow a regular Bundt pan so I like to use an angel food cake pan.

6. Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes. Do NOT open the oven while baking.

7. While the cake is cooking, make your glaze by combining the glaze ingredients until you have a glaze consistency. I’ll be honest I never use the same amount of powdered sugar to make my glaze. I just add until it looks right and has a slightly thick consistency.

8. When you take the cake out of the oven, immediately poke holes into the cake. Then pour glaze over the hot cake and let it soak in for 10 minutes.

9. Turn the cake out onto a cake plate with a lip so the glaze won’t run off and then pour the remaining glaze over the cake. **My hubby wants to really crusty side on top even though it is the bottom so I have to turn my cake out and then flip it. We use to have this discussion every time I made the cake, I finally gave up and just flip. You can do this if you want or not – it is up to you.

I hope you enjoy the cake as much as our family. Let me know how it turns out!

Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

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