Citrus Poppy Seed Pound Cake

My mom’s birthday was earlier this week and I wanted to make her a treat to celebrate. She might be citrus’ biggest fan, so I knew I had to incorporate a couple of citrus components into it. This Citrus Poppy Seed Pound Cake was the result!

This recipe is adapted from a NYTimes Cooking recipe.

Ingredients:

• Butter, for greasing the loaf pan
• 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon, divided 
• the zest and juice of 1 orange, divided
• the zest and juice of 1 lemon, divided 
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ⅔ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, or vanilla extract to make nut free
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle in 1 tablespoon flour and shake the loaf pan, coating it evenly in flour. Discard any extra flour that doesn’t stick to the sides/bottom of the pan.

Add the sugar to a large bowl. Zest the orange and lemon into the bowl, and mix to combine thoroughly.

Juice the orange and lemon into a measuring cup. You should have a bit over 1/4 cup juice. If you have less than that, juice another lemon until you have more than 1/4 juice. Set aside.

To the sugar mixture, whisk in the buttermilk, 3 tablespoons of the lemon-orange juice, and the 3 eggs.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 3/4 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, whisking to combine.

Follow by whisking in the olive oil.

And the poppy seeds, until fully combined.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan (it will be a pretty wet batter).

Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Use a knife around the edges to loosen the loaf and turn it out onto a baking rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Turn the loaf right side up.

Whisk together the remaining lemon and orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract, and the confectioners’ sugar.

Drizzle the mixture over the loaf.

Let cool completely before cutting.

I cannot begin to describe how amazing my kitchen smelled while making this.

The pound cake turned out nice and springy and filled with citrusy goodness.

This is a great make ahead recipe — slice the pound cake, add back to the loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to eat. This would be wonderful with fresh blueberries!