1920 Famous Ritz Carlton Lemon Pound Cake from Kelsey's Food Reviews

1920 Famous Ritz Carlton Lemon Pound Cake - made September 29, 2023 from Kelsey's Food Reviews

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

5 eggs, room temperature

1 cup whole milk

6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray and flour a Bundt pan,
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together granulated sugar, butter and shortening until well combined, 5 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
5. Add dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions, beating on low speed until just combined.
6. Beat in lemon juice and zest, keeping batter even textured. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Bake cake 55-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out clean. Avoid opening the oven door for the first 45 minutes to prevent cake from falling. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Run a thin spatula along sides of cake and middle of tube to loosen. Invert onto cake plate and let cool completely.

If your first instinct is to laugh or cringe when you look at these pictures, I don't blame you. I'm in the cringe camp. As you can clearly see, this cake did not come out of the Bundt pan cleanly. And this is the good looking one. The recipe made so much batter that I split it into 2 bundt pans or it would've overflowed if I'd baked it in just one. I won't even show you the disaster of the second one that only half came out of the pan. The other half decided to part ways with the rest of the cake and cling to the pan when I turned it over. Yeah, super fail. And yes, I did spray and coat the pans well. It just didn't matter.

Which is a shame as this cake tasted great and had the perfect pound cake texture. I enjoyed it so much I need to try it again and (hopefully) do a better job with the greasing and flouring of the bundt pan. I also want to amp up the lemon flavor and add more zest next time. Normally I wouldn't serve something that looked so lame but since it tasted good, I included it in my baking meetup and to donate to Reno Initiative. Hopefully no one will care what it looks like as long as it tastes good.