This makes one not very large cake in an "English cake" pan (26x6.5 cm / 10x2.5 inch).
You may want to double up the recipe and make two 
FoOr variation, you can use any citrus, and add mixins such as poppy seeds, candied ginger, sumac, raspberries, etc.
Please tell me if you make it, I really hope that you will like it!
Lemon-mandarin pound cake
Batter:
- 140g white flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder (7 g)
- 190g white sugar
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt (1.5 g)
- 15-20g fine zest from a lemon and an orange/mandarin
- 160g labaneh or tart Greek yogurt or (5% fat or more)
- 2 large eggs
- 45g olive oil - aromatic, but not too vegetal, you can use natural oil if preferred
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For syrup:
- 25g sugar
- apx. 7-6 g of long and thin stripes of peel (zest) from a lemon and an orange/mandarin - see photo below for reference
- Apx. 45g lemon juice
Method:
- Heat oven to 170 deg C (340 deg F).
- Grease one pan.
-
Prepare 3 mixing bowl: one of them should be quite large and another should be a mixer bowl to beat the egg whites in.
-
In the small bowl, measure flour and baking powder.
- In the large bowl, mix sugar, fine citrus zest and salt.
- Let it rest while you proceed.
- Separate eggs, placing egg whites in the empty mixer bowl and the yolks in the large bowl with the sugar and zest.
-
Add yogurt, vanilla and oil to the bowl with the sugar and yolks.
- Beat egg whites to soft peaks.
- Beat yolk-sugar-yogurt mixture until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Fold the egg white foam into the yolk mixture, until smooth and almost uniform.
- Sieve flour and baking soda mixture over the liquids.
- Fold from the bottom up just until uniform. Do not over mix.
- Pour into greased pan.
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Bake for apx. 45 minutes. A skewer should go out cleanly. The cake should rise to fill the pan and get a tan color. Do not over bake.
- While the cake bakes, make the syrup:
- Mix together sugar and peel stripes (long zest). Mix well for the sugar to draw flavor from the peel.
- Add about the lemon juice and mix well until the sugar dissolves. If it doesn't, heat the syrup very briefly.
- When the cake is out of the oven, pierce it all over with a thin skewer or toothpick.
- Pour the syrup over the cake while it is still hot from the oven.
- Spread the remaining syrup soaked peel strips over the cake.
-
Let chill and store in an airtight container, or wrapped in nylon.
- For variation, you may add candied orange peel, poppy seeds, mint, raspberries, etc.
