Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake and Lil' Lemon &Lime Tree

This is going to be a short post.  Baked this Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake a few months ago but never got the time to post it until now.  For a pound cake, it is rather light and the lemon makes a difference to a pound cake as a whole.  You know why I like this cake?  Because it has my fav ingredient..it's the last item in the ingredient list below..that's why..kekkekee..:)

Here's the recipe from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large lemons
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 plus 1/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 160dC. Grease and flour 9 in baking pan.
2. In medium bowl, combine flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, soda and salt. From lemons, grate 1 tbsp peel and squeeze 3 tbsp juice.
3. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until blended. Increase speed to high, beat until light and fluffy about 5 mins. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula. beat in lemon peel and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat until smooth.
4. Spoon batter into pan and bake for 1 hour 20 mins or until done, cool in pan on wire rack for 10 mins, then remove from pan; place on rack set over waxed paper.
5. In small bowl, combine lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar. With pastry brush, brush mixture over top and sides of warm cake. Cool completely.

Store any leftover cake in the refrigerator as they turn rancid quickly at room temperature.

I'm proud to show off my little lemon tree that I bought from the nursery and the other is my lime tree that is full of fruits and flowers.  Yay..can't wait to use them in more lemon/lime flavored desserts..:)

Lemon 'Tree'

Lime Tree

 Many little limes

 Lime Flowers

Camerons Highland, Pahang, Malaysia

Let's take a break from food for a while.  I've not been baking since my reno started more than a month ago and thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you our most recent family holiday over the long weekend.

I have a relatively big family and we try our best to get together in anyone's house for a 'makan-makan' (cook-and-eat session) or if possible, go somewhere for a short holiday.  We'd like the latter to happen more often but since everyone is working, organizing a holiday together can be quite a challenging task.  Thanks to my second sis who organized this holiday, we took the opportunity of the long weekend, being Friday, August 31st, was a public holiday over here in Malaysia in observation of our Independence Day, my sis suggested that we rented a bungalow in the highlands where it has its own courtyard and backyard where all the children and the adults can spend some quality time together.  That's what we did.  Four cars packed with our necessities and food, drove up to Cameron Highlands which is situated in Pahang state in Malaysia where it is much colder than here in the city.  Cameron Highlands is where most of our vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruits produce comes from.  So you can imagine the number of farms/plantations they have there and I bet you can imagine how full our cars were when we drove back down to the city! hahahaa...Here are some pics of our short wonderfully cool holiday..

Fauna in Cameron Highlands.  This is called the Lantern Flower due to it's shape.

Woo hoo..let's check out this place!  The Rose Bungalow.

The Rose Cottage opposite the Rose Bungalow

Night view of the valley from the patio.

Kids having fun in the beautiful garden.

Our popular tea farm - The BOH Tea plantation.  Our best tea comes from this beautiful scenic landscape of tea plantation.

This is Lucky, the caretaker's dog.  He's gentle and friendly.  We grew quite attached to him in such a short time.  Missing you, Lucky!

This is the Strawberry & Mushroom farm.  You can buy these mushrooms as you see it in this bags and cultivate if in your own home.  For the mushrooms to grow, you need to place this in the house and away from direct sunlight.  According to the farmer, each bag can produce mushrooms about 7-8 times a year and these are all edible mushrooms.  Only thing is, it will not produce after a year.  My sis bought these.  I shall visit her every month in the hope of getting to sample some of these gems..heehheeehee

Look at those red juicy succulent strawberries!  I bought almost 2 kilos of these red rubies to make jam and ice cream..that shall be in my next post..hahhaahaa

More tea...look at the contrast.  The mature trees were cropped so that new leaves will grow.

Wonderful and lush..the air is so fresh and cool.  Rejuvenating!

When you go up to Cameron, you must drop by The Smokehouse for a cup of tea and scones serve with fresh whipped cream and their signature homemade strawberry jam.  Yup, after tasting the jam, it inspire me to make some too :D

Outside The Smokehouse and the following pictures were taken in the compound of the premise.  The garden is full of beautiful flowers and foliage and the building itself is so old, an inheritance from the colonial days.  The structure and the interior of the building are so rustic and very very English.

Garden Frenzy!

Let me take you through my garden...again! haahaa!

My first cherry tomato!

 Our pride & joy!

 There are more bunches of grapes but couldn't take all of the pictures.

 Chili Padi or Bird Eye Chili

 Capsicum Flower. Hope to get the fruit pretty soon!

 Dwarf Bean

 Broccoli

 Turmeric Leaf - those leaves are huge!

Sweet Basil