sweet tart

My dinner party dessert is lemon sour cream poundcake

from Art Smith's 2001 cookbook, Back to the Table

You might know Art as Oprah's former personal chef.

If you saw him compete on last seasons Top Chef Masters,

you likely fell for his kindness, his great laugh and his

modern southern cooking.

Lemon sour cream pound cake

3 c. flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

3 c. sugar

6 large eggs, room temp

1 t. vanilla

zest of 2 lemons

1 c. sour cream, room temp

Lemon syrup - super tart

zest of 1 lemon

1 c. fresh lemon juice

1/4 c. water

2/3 c. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour pans. Art calls for a Bundt pan. I used 2 loaf pans because I want to cut them differently.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and soda and salt together. set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a hand held mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla and the zest. On low speed, add the flour in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour and beat until smooth. Spread evenly in the pan.
3. Bake until tip of the knife comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours.
4. Meanwhile, make the syrup. Bring the lemon juice, zest, water, and sugar to a boil over high heat and cook until it is reduced to 1/2 cup. (It's intense!) Allow syrup to cool before drizzling onto the cake.
5. Transfer cake to wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Drizzle half of the syrup over the bottom of the cake and the other half over the top. Cool completely before cutting.

Quality control, aka the girls, gave this cake a thumbs up.