Lemon Loaf Cake

I´m a happy person every other tuesday, when we get a chance to post our TWD recipe. I like exploring new recipes, and this book, Baking with Julia, is a real find if you like baking. Of course not all recipes turn out like they should (at least the first time) and some I might not repeat anytime soon. But I always like taking the time to read them, buy the ingredients, have the post ready.
Today is all about lemons. Lemon Loaf Cake, by contributing baker Norman Love. A name I hadn´t heard of before, to be honest.
This recipe is hosted by Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life .

I was intrigued upon reading this recipe for the first time. I had nominated it, because the name didn´t match the instructions. I imagined a standard loaf or pound cake and this was not the usual way to make it.
This is a strange recipe. The book talks about it being similar to a genoise, but I don´t agree.

For me genoise has, mainly, eggs beaten to triple their volume. And that is specifically discouraged here. The eggs and sugar simply have to be whisked until foamy. So it came down to mixing, not beating, one ingredient after the other. Like you would a one bowl cake made with oil or the filling for lemon bars. Just add and mix. And then there´s cream and melted butter added at the end, with a spatula. Why change to a spatula is beyond me. Another item to wash when I could easily have continued with my little whisk and achieved the same batter. But this, I read somewhere, is a thing of pro bakers that are used to using many bowls and whisks. They don´t have to clean up the mess (I said that).
Frankly, I had my doubts it would even rise in the oven. I repeat, it was strange.

I read the comments and saw that many found it dry. I´m glad mine was moist, but with an extremely tight crumb. That creates the sensation of a bit of dryness maybe. I made this for a friend and kept it wrapped for one day. I glazed it with a combination of powdered sugar and lemoncello. I usually stick to the exact recipe, but this was a birthday and the cake alone was kind of a sad sight. Besides, I´m getting a bit addicted to glazes of powdered sugar and liqueurs.

As far as lemons cakes go, I like mine very lemony. This needed about double the amount of zest that was called for in the recipe. 

In the end, I liked the texture and taste very much, but it doesn´t get many points as a plain lemon cake. 
But this is a cake I would definitely bake if I wanted to make a trifle from scratch. Or serve a thick slice (I cannot begin to tell you how I hate thin slices of pound cake) alongside fresh fruit with honey and whipped cream. Something like that.