Saturday, March 6, 2010

Pound Cake Round Up

So, it's been four weeks since I started baking my way through the cookbook and, well, I'm still making pound cake. Yep, 4 weeks of pound cake and still 3 more to go. I'm actually hoping to do two recipes in one weekend (maybe this weekend) just to get through them because, although they are lovely, I'm kind of tired of pound cakes. (not to mention using 1 pound of butter, 4 cups of flour, and eight eggs for each recipe is not cheap) The up side is that my co-workers and student staff are LOVING Monday mornings. There is always an up side.

Here's the round up so far; I've made plain, espresso, lemon, and ginger pound cakes. I still have chocolate, almond, and poppy seed left. My favorite was the espresso (see recipe in my previous post). The cocoa plus the coffee and then the coffee glaze was great! My co-workers seem undecided. I've had lots of votes for the ginger one. I didn't love it. Considering it has ginger incorporated in 3 ways, fresh, crystallized, and powdered, I didn't find it to be that, well, gingery. Oh well.

Last week was lemon. The recipe only calls for 1 tablespoon of lemon zest to be added to the batter. Not much if you think about it so it's a VERY mild flavor. However, the tart lemon glaze is to die for. I would like to add it to other cakes and cupcakes. It's yummy. Bad part, you only get it when you are eating the top and side crusts of the cake. Boo! I kept eating the inside out of the cake and saving the top crust.

So here are the recipe variations for the lemon and ginger cakes. You can find the whole recipe in the "Great Cake Caper" post.

Williams-Sonoma Pound Cake Variations – Lemon Pound Cake
Follow the recipe to make pound cake. When creaming the butter and sugar in step 3, beat 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest into the mixture.
Proceed with the recipe to finish the batter and bake and cool the cakes.
Next, add 1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice to a bowl. Using a rubber spatula, stir until mixture is thick, smooth, and pourable.
Drizzle glaze over the cakes and let stand for 5 minutes to firm up. Cut cakes and serve.

Williams-Sonoma Pound Cake Variations – Ginger Pound Cake
Follow the recipe to make pound cake. When sifting the dry ingredients in step 2, add 4 teaspoons ground ginger and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon along with the flour, baking powder, and salt. After sifting, mix in ½ cup minced crystallized ginger.
When beating in the eggs and vanilla extract in step 4, use only 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and add 1 tablespoon peeled and finely grated fresh ginger.
Proceed with the rest of the recipe.