Sweet and Sour Poundcake

You take a sour thing. A lemon. You take a sweet thing. Sugar. You mix them. You get another sweet thing. It's science. It's life. It's a lot of short sentences.

The lemon represents the bad times. The time you drove to work in your gardening shoes. Or the entire day you spent in the kitchen and none of your recipes turned out. Maybe you've had a sour year infused with depression or stress or the loss of a loved one.

All of us in the Joy the Baker podcast community got word of some sour news recently. Veronica, a dedicated fan of the podcast, passed away not long ago due to complications in surgery. Tim, her husband, wrote in to let us all know what happened. Tim, my warmest aloha goes out to you.

It's just like that you know. We're here and then we're not here. It's sour. So, just like in this recipe for lemon poundcake, I suggest we add some sugar. Go right now and tell your dearest you love them. Make this cake for a friend. Volunteer your time somehow. Give your co-worker a pat on the back. Call your mom. Think good thoughts.

Because when you add a sour thing and a sweet thing, you get a sweet thing. Veronica's husband Tim suggested volunteering somewhere to honor Veronica's memory. I'm going to start taking a garbage bag with me every time I go to the beach to fill with trash. How can you make this sour time sweet? To begin with, make this cake, and think of Veronica and think of Tim and think of all the people you love.

Sour + Sweet = Sweet

Lemon Poundcake
recipe from Joy the Baker

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 eggs, room temperature

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 325.  Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.  Cream butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer.  In the mean time, work the lemon zest into the granulated sugar.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.  Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming.  Add the lemon and vanilla extract.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute each.  Scrape down the bowl after each addition.  Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder.  Don't over mix in the electric mixer.  Bring the ingredients together with a wooden spoon.  Pour into a greased and floured pan and bake for 60- 75 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.