Tuesday, May 31, 2011
No fail Pound Cake
So sorry for the late post... May has not been the kindest month to us. Had a break from health problems and so I caught up a bit on my challenges. First up was making my pound cake and I found an intriguing recipe on Allrecipes.com that used the addition of cake mix. Now,generally cake mixes are not my go to item unless I need something done ASAP. However, I recently made a wedding cake and found an awesome recipe using cake mix. It was so successful that I just had to try this recipe for No fail Pound Cake - big hit! I mean, this was a massive huge hit for my family. I did make a few minor adjustments (no surprise there!) but here goes...
No Fail Pound Cake
by Patsy with adjustments by me (in italic)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract I used 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste instead of the extracts
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract omitted
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Butter Recipe, Yellow
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and lemon extract (or in my case the vanilla bean). Beat in water and sour cream. Beat in the cake mix and flour. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean( mine took just under an hour). Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Pound Cake Fail!
I was so excited about this months challenge. I love pound cake, but I have never attempted to make my own. However I wanted to make something unique and and tasty because why not if I'm going to the effort of making a pound cake? So one afternoon while on Food Networks site I found this recipe for Mascarpone Pound Cake courtesy of Giada. I recently cooked with mascarpone cheese and I loved it, so I was excited to find a recipe that would use the rest up. Well, as you can see from the title of this post, it failed. As in, totally inedible, not cooked, disgusting mess. I think the cooking time is way off and it should be baked in a tube pan, not a loaf pan. The batter was really dense, like a brownie batter, so a loaf pan didn't allow the middle to set at all.
So now I have a recipe from my friend Alton Brown that I want to try since I am without a delicious pound cake. Maybe I will get a chance this week to make it!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Bring on the Fruit
I love this cake with its combination of strawberry and lemon. The strawberry dominated over the lemon but that was good, The background of lemon flavor made for a perfect setting for the strawberries.
Strawberry Lemon Pound Cake Ingredients: |
3/4 cup oil 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 cup Rice milk 3 eggs 1 teaspoon lemon extract 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 2 cups gluten-Free flour mixture |
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees . Grease and flour a loaf pan. | |
In a large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar until Well mixed. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Combine the flour and baking powder, and stir into the batter alternating with the Rice milk and lemon extract. When well mixed, fold in the sliced strawberries and spoon into greased loaf pan. |
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Bag Lady's Favorite Chocolate Pound Cake
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Cream cheese pound cake
I was very excited to see pound cake was our next challenge. I love pound cakes! The recipe I chose ended up being somewhat disappointing. I think it was dry & the crumb was coarse. Not what I had enjoyed from pound cakes in the past. Usually, I eat pound cake plain; but this cake could only be helped by adding some kind of topping. I would not make this recipe again.
I used the recipe from a blog called "lick the bowl good".It was not original to her, but she had already halved the recipe so I used hers.
Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Berries adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes
1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh berries (I used raspberries and blueberries)
Adjust the oven rack to the lower middle position. Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan and dust with flour. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.
Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, 1/2 a cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. After the last addition, mix for 30 seconds on medium speed. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Place the cake in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 325 degrees F and bake, without opening the oven door, until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35-45 minutes.
Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert it onto a rack. Cool completely before slicing and serving.
Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Marble Pound Cake
Recipe:
10-inch non-removable bottom tube pan: generously buttered and flour
Put into a cold oven and then turn your oven on to recommended temperature
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
3 cups sifted cake flour (must only use cake flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 large eggs, room temperature
1 T. vanilla extract or seeds from one vanilla bean
1/2 cup heavy cream (room temperature)
1/2 cup sour cream (room temperature)
3 oz. dark chocolate melted
3 oz. semi sweet chocolate melted
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and lighter in color. Add each egg one at a time and beat. Continue to cream until well incorporated. Add the sour cream and heavy cream. Continue beating until mixed well. Slowly add cake flour and salt. Add vanilla.
Take 2 1/2 cups of batter and mix in melted chocolate until well incorporated. Add 2/3 of vanilla batter into tube pan. Add chocolate batter and then remaining vanilla batter on top.
Put into a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes and then reduce oven to 325 degrees and bake for another 35+ minutes. Do the toothpick test. Sometimes you might have to add another 10 to 15 minutes of baking time. Cool completely and remove from pan. Sprinkle with powder sugar or drizzle a confectioner's glaze or even chocolate ganache is nice. Enjoy!
Wrap cooled cake with plastic wrap. Gets better with age. Stores up to 5 days. Freezes well.




