Everyone does. It's simple, endlessly adaptable, and always good. You can glaze it or frost it or smear it with clotted cream and jam, stud it with nuts and fruit, brighten it with berries. It's really the best cake to have in your repertoire.
"I hate pound cake", said no one ever.
While the amount of butter that goes in makes your heart go pitter-pat, it has that unbeatable, dense buttery crumb with a caramelized browned top.
This also freezes really well. Cut it in half once it's cooled, wrap well in plastic and no one will be the wiser when you pull out the emergency cake. More than a pound cake recipe, you will one day need emergency cake.
It's fantastic with tea, it's great to make when you have peckish houseguests with no real idea what they might like, you could prick the tops with a toothpick and drizzle grapefruit syrup on it. I get a little crazy just thinking about how many ways pound cake could be something novel or to fit an occasion or, say, a lover of rhubarb.
In England, they call this Madeira cake. I have no idea if this actually came from Portugal originally, but they put a stake with a union jack on top of this and called it their own. Speaking of Port, you could reduce some port on the stove with sugar and make a nice alcohol glaze on top with a nod to its maybe-roots.
I've included some ideas for a few variations at the bottom, a la Mark Bittman, as he was always my inspiration for making things my own. My photographed version: I toasted a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds, added a handful of candied ginger and lemon zest and I had an Asian-inspired one.
Recipe: Theme and Variations on a Pound Cake
makes enough cake for a sitting of 8, or 4 over 2 days or 2 over 4 days
240 grams (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
200 grams (scant cup) sugar (I use turbinado "raw" sugar, but caster or white sugar works)
juice of 1 lemon (optional, let's talk about other flavors below!)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
300 grams (2 1/2 cups) flour
1 t salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
Preheat the oven to 170c/ 340f. Butter and line with parchment a large loaf pan, or two small ones.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
Cream the butter and sugar with a whisk. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Juice the lemon and add. Switch to a spoon or a rubber spatula and gently begin to incorporate the flour, 1/3 at a time. At this point, add whatever you'd like to add.
Bake in the oven for about an hour, or when a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly, nibble away until it's gone.
Some ideas for add-ins:
I'm sure we'll be seeing this cake again in disguise. In this version I added 2 T sesame seeds, toasted, the finely chopped zest of the lemon, and about 75 g of sliced candied ginger for a zippy spice.
You could very easily turn this into a lemon-poppyseed cake: double the lemon and zest and add two tablespoons of poppyseeds.
If you feel for berries, frozen or fresh- and this would be just lush dotted with raspberries, scented of rosewater and pistachio- measure out about 100 grams of berries. Be sure not to beat them in too vigorously unless you want a pink cake. In which case- give them a thrashing in the blender or by hand before adding them to the batter.
No comments:
Post a Comment