Today I decided to make a Cranberry Lemon Pound Cake.

This is a regular pound cake recipe but I adjusted the ingredients by adding some dried cranberries and fresh lemon juice with zest.

The first step is to cream together the margarine and sugar.

You can also use either butter or margarine but I had margarine in the house so I used that.

Creaming Oleo and Sugar Creaming Butter and Sugar

This photograph shows adding the flour, baking power, salt, lemon extract and lemon juice and zest.

I always have a lemon zester in the house.

It’s a great tool to easily remove zest from citrus fruits.

I used the other half of this organic lemon in an earlier blog making fresh apple pie.

Fresh Lemon Juice and Zest Vintage Swirl Bundt Pan

This photograph shows the bundt pan I used.

It is a vintage gray Dr. Oetker Swirl Bundt Pan which was made in Germany.

It was found in a second hand store.

I am using a cake tester to see if the cranberry lemon pound cake is done.

The top is slightly cracked but the top sits on the bottom of the serving dish so no one sees it.

Cranberry Lemon Pound Cake Cranberry Lemon Pound Cake Dusted with Powdered Sugar

The above photograph shows the completed Cranberry Lemon Pound Cake dusted with powered sugar.

I added a few sprigs of flowering thyme to decorate the dish.

Ingredients for Cranberry Lemon Pound Cake

• 1/2 Cup of Dried Sweetened Cranberries
• 2 Sticks of Butter or Margarine, softened
• 2 Cups of White Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Lemon Extract
• Juice from one half Lemon and about a teaspoon of Lemon Zest
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
• 4 Large Eggs
• 3 3/4 Cups of All-Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting the pan
• 3/4 Cup of Water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a small bowl, add a couple tablespoons of warm water to the dried cranberries, set aside.
2. With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Beat in the baking powder, lemon extract, lemon juice, zest and salt.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, stopping and scrapping the sides of the bowl.
3. Add flour and water, alternating between the two.  Add the soaked cranberries without the water.
4. Thoroughly grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.  Transfer batter to pan and bake approximately one hour.
5. Cool cake in a pan for 15 minutes.  Then loosen edges and release from the pan on serving dish.  Use a wooden skewer to help loosen the cake from the pan.
6. For a nice decorative touch, dust with powdered sugar.