{Secret Recipe Club} Lemon Pound Cake Lightened-Up

So it is officially that time again.  Time to share with you another delicious recipe from yet another amazing blog who secretly doesn't know what I've cooked up.  Yep you guessed it, Secret Recipe Club time!!  If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, this secret club is a fun group packed full of bloggers who are all assigned a new blog each month and choose a recipe to make in order to post on the same date.  Readers get a fabulous new recipe and YOU get to see who made yours!  Easy, right??

::Surprise!::

This month I had the pleasure of receiving the blog Keep It Sweet by the gorgeous Lauren from New York City!  Lauren is someone I can relate to completely as she is a 20-something blogger cooking and baking incredible things in her tiny little kitchen.  I feel ya on that sista!

Now lemme tell you.  It was SO hard trying to pick just one recipe to make from her blog!  {Truth be told I actually printed out a couple of recipes such as her homemade apple sauce and her yummy pumpkin raisin bread pudding.}  Delish.  I think I chose a pretty great recipe though that is low in fat and calories and tastes amazing!!

Friends I give you a lightened-up version of Lemon Pound Cake.  This cake was super easy to put together, you probably already have everything on hand, and the outcome was pure perfection!  The fresh lemon zest is what really ties everything together and the cake comes out sooo moist.  I enjoyed a slice of this with some fat-free vanilla ice cream {only 90 calories thank you} while watching some Real Housewives of Beverly Hills action.

Those women officially make me feel better about my life...sheesh.

I've never made homemade pound cake before so I didn't really make any changes to this other than using fat-free cream cheese, light butter and Splenda Sugar Blend.  Everything else I kept exactly the same...why fix what's not broken??

I'm so wise I know.

Next time I just won't fill my baking dish so high with batter, it rose a little bit more than expected so I had to bake it somewhat longer in order for the center to cook completely.  Oops. Any way, here's the recipe for those already drooling because I KNOW you'll want to make this.  Go ahead and click "print" ahead of time, you'll thank me later.

Lemon Pound Cake

______________________________

Servings: 12

Serving Size: 1 slice 

Calories: 162

Fat: 6.7 g

Carbs: 22.2 g 

Fiber: 0.6 g

Protein: 3.8 g

Old Points: 3.7 pts

Points+: 4 pts

______________________________

Here are your ingredients:

Recipe adapted from Keep It Sweet

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 (8 oz) block of fat-free cream cheese, softened at room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) of light butter, softened

1/2 cup fat-free plain greek yogurt

1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest (about 1 lemon)

1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend (or 1 cup sugar)

4 eggs brought to room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk dry ingredients {flour, baking powder and salt} and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter on high speed for several minutes until mixture is light and creamy.  Use a microplane to lightly grate the skin of a lemon.

On high speed, beat the lemon zest and yogurt into butter and cream cheese mixture for about a minute.  Add sugar and beat on high speed until batter is smooth and creamy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, putting the mixer on high for about a minute or two between each.  Add in the vanilla on high speed for a minute; scrap the sides of the bowl and turn mixer on high again until well combined.

Reduce speed to low and gradually add in dry ingredients.  Before batter is fully combined, remove bowl from mixer and lightly fold batter to get all of the dry ingredients mixed in.

Pour batter into a 9x5 loaf pan sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe 

Thanks again Lauren for this delicious recipe!  Make sure to check out her fabulous blog Keep It Sweet for more amazing dishes and entertaining blog posts. 

And if you haven't already, be sure to check out the Secret Recipe Club!  It's super fun and you will meet some incredible bloggers.  Thanks for reading and hope you all have a great week!

Now I'm off to see who got my blog....hehe :)

_________________________