(luscious) lemon pound cake

Back in September, my friend Amy said…OK…the  lemon cake?  Ever since then it’s been on my “to do” list but I was all over the place with my posts.  But when Amy invited our family for dinner…it was done.  Penciled in and on the updated list.  This cake is really so good and so lemony.  People say there are two categories of dessert eaters – lemons or chocolates, but I am both!  Lucky me.  Amy too.  Her family as well (well, maybe not Jordan).  Sherry Yard – the pastry chef who created this cake is so talented, and her cookbooks are filled with technical hints and great guidance.  I highly recommend them.  Anyway – this cake stands alone very well, but is also quite good (as a dinner party dessert) with fresh berries and a dollop of freshly whipped cream (which you now can make!)  In my baking tips I recommend setting your ingredients out in front of you so that you don’t forget anything.  I did that, I do that, but somehow (I must admit) I ignored the 4 eggs sitting on the counter!  At the end I had to add them (which makes for heavier crumb and cake) but luckily my family said still good.  And Rob said he prefers the cake a little dense like that.  (Maybe also a little under-baked.)  Oh well…next time I’ll get it right – we all flake out now and then.  Especially me.  OK, enjoy-

(luscious) lemon pound cake (slightly adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard):

This makes two 9×5 loaf pans.  One to serve, one to freeze.  Or enough for a party.  Cut recipe  in half if you don’t want so much cake.

cake–
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened at room temp
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup finely grated and chopped lemon zest (I added a little bit of orange zest too)
4 large eggs, room temp
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla

lemon syrup–
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
skant (meaning just about) 3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two 9×5 loaf pans with butter and parchment and butter again.  Adjust baking rack to the center of the oven.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

Zest the lemons.  Make sure to wash the fruit first.  Also try not to grate the white part of the lemon peel (the part right under the yellow) because it is bitter.  (Look to baking tips for good graters.)

With paddle attachment beat the butter on medium high speed until softened a bit – about a minute.  Add the sugar and zest and continue to beat until very light and fluffy…(more than normal) for about 10 minutes.  The batter is almost white.

While beating, squeeze the lemons and make the lemon juice (while you are at it, make enough for the syrup below).  And add together the 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla and set aside.

Scrape down the batter and mix again.  On medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time until each egg is incorporated.  Scrape, and mix again.

On lowest speed, add one third of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until just incorporated, then add 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture (again, till just incorporated) and repeat process again, ending with the last one third of dry ingredients.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 1 hour and 55-70 minutes – until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 7-10 minutes.  Then carefully invert on rack.  Run a sharp knife around the edges if you think they are stuck to the sides first.

In the meantime, make the syrup.  Boil the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes – and the sugar is dissolved.

While the cake is still warm, poke little holes all over the cake with your toothpick…all over…and with a pastry brush apply the lemon syrup.  (I suppose you can spoon it on if you don’t have a brush.)  Repeat a few times.  The warm syrup will fall in all the little holes as well as the top of the cake…yum.  (I had a little leftover syrup…but save it for something!)

Serve warm or at room temp and it will last in freezer for 3 weeks if wrapped airtight.

Enjoy-

eggnog pound cake (w/rum glaze)

I wanted to make this cake ever since I saw it on the cover of Flo Braker’s new cookbook Baking For All Occasions.  I thought perfect for the holidays, and oh, it really is!  Filled with rummy raisins (currents if you can find them) and a terrific crystallized glaze that looks like way more work than it is – makes this cake stand out in both appearance and taste.  The eggnog, nutmeg, vanilla…mmm…all of it makes for one serious treat.  My friend Mindel in return for a lift (I seem to barter sweets for rides lately) – exclaimed “we all ate it (the four of us) within 5 minutes in the car.  It was soo good!”  My friend Wendy confessed that she tasted her slice after dinner and dessert on Saturday night – and although full – she said it was delicious.  Jason called and very seriously said, “Lisi, what did I just eat?  Oh my God.”  Flo Braker’s book is a great read.  It is filled with so very many tips, hints and methods – I urge especially novice bakers to take a look at it.  There is a lot to learn and so many mouth watering recipes.  Make this during the holidays if you can.  A nice departure from chocolate and surely a hit with family and friends.

eggnog pound cake w/rum glaze (slightly adapted from Flo Braker’s Baking For All Occasions):

3/4 cup dried currents (or raisins)
3 tablespoons dark rum
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
2 sticks (8 oz)  unsalted butter,  room temp
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten, room temp
1 cup store-bought eggnog, room temp (from refrigerated section in mkt – not canned)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

glaze–

3/4 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (and 325 if using a pan with a dark or black finish).  Butter (well) and flour a 10×3 inch bundt pan.  You can also use a 10 by 4 1/2 inch tube pan.

Soak raisins or currents in the 3 tablespoons of rum.  Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

In mixer with paddle attachment – beat butter for 2 minutes on med speed.  Add sugar and continue to beat for 5-7 minutes – until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the bowl two times during this and continue to beat and incorporate all of the butter.

Add the eggs, bit by bit – on medium speed until each addition is incorporated.  Scrape down bowl and mix again.

Mix the eggnog and vanilla.

On the lowest speed, add the dry ingredients in 4 additions and the eggnog in 3 additions.  Alternating between and starting and ending with the dry ingredients.  Mix after each addition until just incorporated.  Remove from mixer.

With a spatula, gently fold in the raisins (or currants) and rum.  Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top evenly.

Bake in lower third of the oven – for about 55-65 minutes.  Mine took 60 exactly.  The cake should pull away from the sides a bit and have a good spring to the top when touched lightly.

Let the cake sit for 10 minutes.  In the meantime, make the glaze.  Mix together the sugar, rum and water.

Invert the cake carefully (after the 10 minutes) and place on wire rack over a piece of foil or wax paper to catch the drippings.  Gently brush the glaze all over the cake – sides, and top – the center too – with a pastry brush.  Use all of the glaze.

Let cake cool completely.  Enjoy!

orange/pumpkin cornmeal cake

I noticed this recipe in Fine Cooking’s Sweet Cakes magazine because of the beautiful photograph of the cake – it looked delicious and pumpkiny – perfect for fall.  I was also curious about the mix of orange, pumpkin and cornmeal. So off I baked.  This cake is rich in color and texture and so very very moist.  I will say that it is not as pumpkiny as I hoped.  But agreed by all – especially the kids – that it was yummy.  I asked Greg’s friend Alex if he tasted the pumpkin and he replied “well, what does pumpkin taste like?”  Greg then followed with…”it doesn’t matter – it is good!”  Friends (kids) Lauren and Zach had equally positive things to say – but again, not about the pumpkin more like “oh, is it lemon?” and “oh, I like carrot cake!”  and more…”doesn’t matter, it’s good.”   Another taster commented how long the cake stayed moist and that it was perfect in the afternoon with her tea.  Regardless of the pumpkin business…it is good.  (Just wanted full disclosure.)  This recipe has a few different steps, but each fairly easy.  Enjoy this fall treat with surprising notes of citrus.  Serve with vanilla yogurt to add another dimension to this sweet.

orange/pumpkin cornmeal cake:
cake–
2 sticks or one cup of soft butter
1 cup sugar (which reader Anne pointed out that I forgot to include my in initial post as she was getting started.  thank you!)
1 tablespoon grated chopped orange zest
1 large egg
2 large eggs, separated
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup fine-ground yellow cornmeal
syrup–
1/2 cup fresh orange juice from about 2 oranges
1/2 cup sugar

Butter a 9 inch bundt pan (click to show better butter detail – scroll down in baking tips) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Separate your eggs and keep both whites and yolks.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cornmeal.

With your paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 3-4 minutes.  Add the egg yolks (one at a time) and then the egg and beat well after each addition.  Scrape down the bowl, and beat again.  Beat in the pumpkin puree and vanilla.

In three additions, slowly add the reserved dry mix to the mixer – stirring on lowest speed (or gently by hand) until just incorporated.

Beat the 2 egg whites until soft peaks form.  I find this easier to do by hand with a whisk but you can certainly do with a hand mixer.  Or, you can transfer your pumpkin batter into another bowl, clean the mixing bowl well, and then beat your eggs with the whisk attachment.  (If you bake a lot, you may want to invest in a second bowl for your stand mixer.)

Then gently fold the egg whites into the pumpkin batter – until you can’t see any more streaks of whites, but be careful not to over due it here.

Pour the batter into the prepped pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes (mine took 43 minutes).  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto wire rack to cool.

While the cake is cooking, make the orange syrup.  Juice the oranges and place the fresh juice in a saucepan with the sugar.  Mix until sugar dissolves and there isn’t any white sugar on the bottom of the saucepan (it will burn if so).  Boil the mixture for about 2 minutes and then remove from heat.

When cake is warm, brush with the orange syrup.  You can repeat when cool if desired.  For service, dot the  syrup on the side of the cake (if plated) or serve on the side and accompany with vanilla yogurt.  I’m hungry now…

blackout cake

When I asked Ali (my friend and neighbor) what I could bake for her birthday, she looked hard and focused and said “chocolate.”  I said like chocolate chocolate crazy chocolate?  And she replied with a good happy grunt.  So I started to hunt for a cake recipe that would suit both of us since I was going to celebrate too!  I can get lazy with cakes and pies – which is why I’m psyched about this blog.  It forces me to really bake out of my box.  And I can be very tentative about cakes because I unfortunately do not have that artistic flair that makes it all just look good.  But the blackout cake is perfect because you get to cover your cake with lots of cake crumbs, hiding any imperfections.  I found and slightly adapted this recipe from the Nordstrom Flavors cookbook.  I cook from this cookbook all the time – really great recipes here – but this is my first dessert.  And wow, what a success.  We ALL loved it.  Ali and her husband Jonathan, their daughter Danika (their little guy Leo just wants Dove chocolates so no cake for him), my kids Andy and Sylvie (not Greg because he won’t even try chocolate cake), my husband Rob and my daughters piano teacher too (who I happened to give a piece to).  Oh, and me!  I overate and actually still feel slightly sick but it was worth it!  If you make it in stages it is not overwhelming.  I made the pudding first day, the cake the next day, and the ganacblackout-ali-cakehe and assembly the third.  But if you’ve got the time you can make it happen in a day.  Just read the recipe all the way through – so you can get yourself very organized.

blackout cake (adapted from the Nordstrom Flavors cookbook – which I believe you might be able to purchase at the store):

pudding-
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup (6 oz) chopped chocolate – I used a mixture of semi sweet and bittersweet
2 tablespoons unsalted butter -room temp

Fill a medium sized bowl with a lot of  ice and water (once the pudding is cooked, you will place it in this bowl to stop further cooking of the pudding – and to speed up the process if you are making this all in one day).  In a sturdy saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa and salt.  Gradually whisk in the milk – and mix until dry ingredients are incorporated.  Add the chocolate to the mixture and over medium heat, cook the pudding – whisking constantly.  The chocolate will melt first and then slowly the mixture will heat up and boil and have a nice smooth sheen to it.  Remove from heat and add the butter one tablespoon at a time.  The whole process should take about 6-8 minutes or so.  Pour the pudding into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap so that it touches the pudding itself and place a few holes in it to let the steam escape.  Place this pudding bowl in the ice bath.  The pudding will need an hour in the ice bath to get it spreadable – but again, I made this in advance and put it in the refrigerator until the next day.

cake–
2 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (one cup) unsalted butter, room temp
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs (room temp)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (room temp)
1 cup strong brewed coffee (I used my Nespresso machine – and used espresso)
chocolate chips (to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter the bottom and sides of two 9 inch round cake pans, line with parchment, butter again, and lightly dust with flour tapping out excess.

Place first five dry ingredients in a bowl, whisk, and set aside.  In a mixer – with paddle attachment beat butter on medium high speed until light about 2 minutes then add sugar and continue to beat on high for another few minutes until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the bowl, and mix again.  Lower the speed to medium and add the eggs, one at a time until each is incorporated as well as the vanilla.  Remember to scrape and scrape again, mix again.

On the lowest speed (or by hand with a spatula), add the flour mixture in 3 additions and alternate with the buttermilk in 2 additions – ending with the dry.  Do not over mix.  Gently pour in the coffee or espresso and again, mix until just incorporated.  Divide the cake into the two pans.  Now add the chocolate chips to just one of the cake pans – I like a cake with a bite and texture – so I added these to the recipe.  But you must keep one cake free of chips because you later blend part of it to make the outside crumb.

Bake for about 40 minutes – but again, please check before that – and pull when cake is just cooked.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, invert on a rack and peel off parchment.  Let cool completely.  I find it is easier to cut these cake rounds horizontally if you put them in the freezer for a bit to harden – especially if you are a novice.  So wrap up and freeze if you choose.  Either the night before or a few hours before assembly.

Ganache–
2 cups heavy cream
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional, but I like it- brings out the chocolate flavor)

Place chocolate in a bowl.  Heat cream to a simmer and then pour over the chocolate and let stand for a few minutes then whisk until smooth and shiny.  Let this stand at room temp for a few hours – until it thickens (you’ll need to frost the cake with it).  I ended up putting it in the refrigerator and mixing every now and then to speed up the process.

Assembly–

Ok, place the frozen (or not) cake on the counter and cut each one horizontally into two slices.  You can even pop back in the freezer so again they are easier to handle.  Pull one of the cake layers from the pack – one with out chocolate chips – and in a food processor, gently pulse until it turns into cake crumbs.  (I have a mini processor so I did it in batches.)  Set crumbs aside.

Take the pudding out and mix well (especially if refrigerated overnight).  Place one cake slice on a cardboard cake round (or use the base of a tart pan, or spring-form pan) and spread with half of the pudding.  Repeat with the next cake layer, the other half of pudding, and top with a cake layer.  Pour some ganache on top of the cake and spread it with an offset spatula or knife, and continue to spread the ganache over the sides of the cake.  It doesn’t have to look pretty here…as it will be covered with crumbs!  Spread and add more ganache to your liking (I like a lot!)  Then let set in the fridge for about 5 minutes.

Place the crumbs on parchment or tinfoil, and holding the cake bottom in one hand, scoop up the cake crumbs (in the other hand) and press them into the cake, all around and on top – turning the cake as you go.  Some crumbs will stick, some will fall, but keep going and pressing until the cake is covered.  The foil below will catch the mess (well, most of it – I should warn you this will be messy).

And that is it!  It seems like a lot when I write it out, but  in stages it is doable and so worth the effort.  Store this in the refrigerator – but pull out about an hour before you eat it to truly enjoy the tastes and flavors as it is much better and meant to be eaten at room temperature.

Oh, and btw – you will most likely have extra ganache.  This will keep in the refrigerator for some time.  Melt before use, and enjoy as a rich chocolate sauce over ice cream, dip a frozen banana in, or simply make a mini fondue for your family with fresh fruit as a treat.

 

nutella-swirl pound cake

Daniel, my nephew,  loves Nutella.  His eyes light up when he sees that jar.  So when I saw a write-up for a new cookbook that featured Nutella-Swirl Pound Cake, I knew I had to make it for him!   I decided to double the recipe so I could keep one and also give one  to Gilda’s club – a charity that I often bake for.  My family really enjoyed  the cake.  For me –  a warm toasted slice was heaven.  I should have swirled the batter a bit more – I think the result would have been even better.  Sadly Daniel didn’t even get to try the cake – but for his next visit I’ll be ready — Nutella jar in hand!

This recipe was adapted from Lauren Chattman’s new cookbook – Cake Keeper Cakes.  She suggests serving this with coffee ice cream.  And I think sliced and toasted with vanilla ice cream is also a winner.

nutella swirl pound cake (adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)
1 1/2  cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs – room temperature
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
one 13 oz. jar Nutella

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan or a bundt pan.  Mix the eggs with the vanilla.  In a medium bowl whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt.

Beat the butter with the sugar at medium high speed until lighter and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.  Lower the mixer speed to medium and gradually beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated and can’t see the egg anymore.  Add the flour in 2 batches, beating at low speed between additions until just incorporated.

Spread about one- third of the batter in the pan, then spread half of the Nutella on top.  Repeat with another third of the batter and the remaining Nutella.  Top with remaining batter.  Swirl the Nutella into the batter with a knife.  Do not over-mix.

Bake the cake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes but check before that –  and keep checking so as not to over bake.  I rarely use the baking time listed.  I use it only as a guide.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack.  Invert and let cool.  Enjoy.