I’d really like to conjure up some useful information for you. That would be nice, right? I could tell you all about avocados. Where they came from. What a lovely shade of green they are. Why they’re so expensive at the grocery store… you know, things like that.
But you didn’t come here for boring old information… did you!?
I didn’t think so.
You came here because you want me to admit to eating Pepperidge Farm Soft Bake Cookies…which is totally happening right now. You came here because you want me to admit to rrreeeeaaaalllllyyyy wanting to watch the season finale of The Bachelor… it’s true… it’s a problem. You came here because you want me to admit to wearing my big fluffy slipper socks. The dreaded socks/shoes that will keep me single for eternity. Well… I’m wearing them and I’m loving it.
So there, friends. It’s all out on the table. Now can we talk about cake?
I’ve baked with avocado before. Remember the Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake with Avocado Buttercream? Yea… that was intense… and surprising… and bright green. Amazing.
I got my hands on another round of avocados and made some magic happen. This recipe makes two glorious loaves of cake. I’ve cut back on the butter and thrown in some ripe mashed avocados. The batter is moistened with buttermilk and bakes up with a lovely golden top and faintly green center.
Can you taste the avocado after the cake is baked? Heck yes you can! It’s subtle but distinct with a nice sweetness and a hint of crunch from cornmeal. I love this pound cake. It’s a home run.
We served this pound cake for The Violet Hour supper brunch with blood orange, pink grapefruit and pomelo segments and a lightly sweetened rose whipped cream. Whoa! Whole lotta yum.
Avocado Pound Cake
makes 2 9x4x3-inch loaves
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
flesh of 1 1/2 ripe avocados, just over a cup to a cup and a half of avocado, mashed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two loaf pans and set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. Set the four eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature while you beat the butter and sugar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened and pliable. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the avocado and beat another minute to incorporate. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg. Beat in vanilla extract.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture. Beat just until combined.
Divide the dough between the two loaf pans and place in the oven. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. I checked my cakes every ten minutes or so after the 30 minute mark. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
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Oh! And for future reference, mine needed an extra five or ten minutes baking time; sounds like a few people have found the same thing.
I loved the texture of this cake so much! The crust was amazing! I think this would work with bananas or apples too! Thanks!
Dear Joy,
I started visiting your blog about a month ago and since then I have had the pleasure of trying quite a few of your delicious recipes…but this ‘takes the cake’. It was absolutely fabulous!! And since the recipe was for two loaves we had enough to give to our neighbours, friends and then some! Thank you so much, it was delicious!
Ama
Hi Joy. I live in Asia, and cornmeal’s not exactly easy to find here. Are there any substitutes for cornmeal?
I made this for my sister-in-law for her birthday. She is not a baker, and I happen to dabble. I am not a huge avocado fan, but this cake is scrumptious! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! :)
I made this for my office and it was devoured within 2 minutes. People went absolutely bananas for this cake! I added a honey tangerine/ruby red grapefruit citrus glaze in lieu of actual citrus fruits on the side. Pretty delish! xo
This looks scrumptious! Any substitutes for cornmeal? My husband is allergic to corn. Thanks! BTW: LOVE your blog!
Just made this. Deee-lish! Thanks for sharing!
I made this last night and it was a huge hit! I didn’t tell my husband what was in it until he tried it, but he said it was delicious! Thanks for the great recipe!
My sister recommended this recipe and I gotta try it. Thanks!
I’m making this for the first time this weekend, and to say I’m super excited is an under-statement!!
I was so curious about this cake and made it immediately. LOVE IT. Thank you so much for the recipe! It’ll definitely become a staple for me from now on :)
I cut back on a cup of sugar (well, I ran out…) and intended to put some honey in to substitute, but forgot. And guess what? It still tastes DIVINE. I’m an RA at my university; after I pulled these puppies out of the oven and cooled them, I sliced up a piping hot loaf and carried half of it around on rounds. Fives minutes later? GONE. This recipe’s a keeper for sure, Joy, as is your blog! Up next: lemon cloud tea cookies!
This is a really awesome recipe! It is a great twist to my regular butter pound cake. I tried making this and the recipe is precise and really tasty. My wife loved it to, because avocado is one of her favorite fruits. It went really well with a hot cup of coffee. I’ll surely bake this up again during for our upcoming family get together. Thanks!
After drooling over this recipe for a long time, I finally made it the other day. This cake is amazing and strange at the same time. It is absolutely delicious, and it reminds me of a sweetened cornbread. The cornmeal adds a great texture that seems strange but works so well! Thanks Joy for a yummy treat!
HELP!…i’m sooo sad i could cry..i was SOOOO excited to bake this i didn’t sleep last night..lol…i did everything correct, i used 2 9x5x3 inch pans.. and it didn’t turn out @ all….it was still SOAKING wet in the middle…HELP!
Ahhh, Joy, you are my hero. I served this pound cake as part of dessert yesterday to rediculously rave reviews, request for recipes, and general happiness. There’ll be no regular pound cake in my house any more :) Thank you.
can some1 help me plz!!!! {tear}…WHAT SIZE LOAF PAN DID EVERYONE USE?
Just made this for the third time! Always a hit, love the look on people’s faces when you tell them it’s avocado :)
This cake was perfect in every way. Loved the tiny specs of green here and there. I cut the sugar down to two cups and it was still very sweet. Thank you!
Thanks so much! I love your avocado cakes. :D
I adapted this one and changed a few ingredients and measurements, baked it as 2 9-inch rounds instead of loaves, and served it as the foundation of a strawberry shortcake this weekend. It was amazing. :D
I have avocado! I have cornmeal! I have printed 10 recipes already … my day will be endless tomorrow! I love your site …Please stop me! ;-) LOL!
I made these last night for a birthday celebration and took the left overs to work. Just thought I’d let you know that my co-worker/friend commented “I can attest to the fact that this pound cake is DELICIOUS. Perfect amount of moisture, perfect chewy top. Better get some quick before I eat it all.” Thanks, Joy.
And for others – I live in a pretty humid place and it was raining last night (seems to always effect baking time) and I had to keep it in for a full hour. Totally worth the wait.
Hi Joy! I thought you should know … I made the avocado pound cake and loved it. But to my surprise my 15-year old son loved it too! Yes, a TEENAGER!! His exact quote was “hey this cake is really good. Can you make it again?”
Did I mention he is a teenager?
So thank you for all your great recipes. So far they have all been approved but at least one of my kids! :-)
Rach
I now know what to do with my extra avocados.I love them,and tend to buy them all the time.I often have to pitch them out because I didn’t get to them in a timely fashion.This recipe will put an end to that!
Allergic to corn?
Has anyone tried roughly ground Almonds? Or even perhaps roughly ground wheat to get
that crunchy feeling?
This is on my “To Bake” list! Can’t wait!
Just made this last night and it turned out great!! Very pretty green color, extra little crunch from the cornmeal, and perfectly moist! Thank you for the extra 3-4 added pounds, hot yoga tonight it is!
I love your blog so much and have been reading it from your first post since finding it a month ago. This is the first thing i made – im so disappointed. I followed it to a T. After all the work it wasn’t cooked in the middle even though the skewer came out clean in several places through the centre & i baked it 55mins. I was so disappointed :( we cut out the cooked bits and chucked the rest out :( of the cooked bits – it was too sweet! really sickly sweet! are all your recipes this sweet? i only used 2.5cups of sugar as well…
i’m sorry you had such a bad experience with this cake. i’ve made this cake several times and never had that problem. did you bake two loaves of bread?
yes – two loaves & even measured the tins :) i’ll give it another try next week – we’ve a new oven but i’ll get a thermometer to check out the temp as well. thanks so much!
I had very similar results baking just last night. The loaves fell in the middle and took an extra 20-25 minutes to bake solid. Tops ended up crispy. It was tasty, though I think a tad sweet. I followed the recipe exactly, but I didn’t have buttermilk, so I subbed plain yogurt as a Betty Crocker substitution list suggested. Still the cake has been devoured here at work with lots of compliments.
I used this recipe as inspiration for my own whole wheat avocado quick bread: http://fleurdelicious.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/avocado-quick-bread/. Everyone is always so surprised to hear there’s avocado in there…just tastes so buttery and creamy and rich. Thanks for the idea!!!
Ok – I’m pregnant & have been loving avocados, but was supper curious about an avocado-pound cake. I grew up eating corn meal breads with avocado, so I can only imagine this will be a nice convo. Can’t wait to get baking.
Cool. I bought a huge avocado and I’m going to make only a little guacamole, so I needed something else to make with it. I’ll halve this recipe and make one loaf. Thanks for sharing!
I have tried this recipe 3 times and I love the taste but have had not so great baking results. I have to up the temp. 25 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes in smaller pans than are suggested. I am a very accomplished baker (I own a baking company) and it bugs me that I can’t get it to bake correctly. The tops cave in and the middle third has a thick layer of unbaked poundcake on top. I have a braand new convection oven so that is not the issue. I have loved every recipe of yours that I have tried and this is the only one I have had issues with. I have 2 avacados in the fridge awaiting a similar fate for the 4th run at this recipe. This does not deter me since the flavor is so great but any suggestions?
OK, I made this a forth time and had much more success. I baked it @ 350 for an additional 20 minutes in 3 smaller aluminium disposable pans and it turned out great. Still a little doughy on the top but very delicious. On to the next.
I just came across this recipe, and I love avocado so I cannot wait to try it. I’ve been wanting to try avocado as a sweet dish before but never found anything that sounds good. So pumped.
Wow… This cake sounds delish. After the weekend I am going to set right to whipping up this avocado pound cake and perhaps the chocolate avocado cake too.
It is a tradition to make a pound cake when a woman goes into labor. As a doula, I would love to use a recipe like yours to help a woman through the first stage of labor. I find busying oneself without exhaustion is great to take the mind off the first few pangs. Baking or a gentle stroll is great. But I would much rather bake. I find it wholesome and when after the baby arrives their is a snack for the new mom and dad.
Thanks so much for sharing your recipes. I can’t wait to try them and look forward to many more. Beautiful blog!
I hope you don’t mind… I blogged about your recipe and used your picture cause it just looks so yummy. If this bothers you let me know and I will quickly remove the blog.
Thanks so much for sharing your recipes. I can’t wait to try them and look forward to many more. Beautiful blog!
I made these for potluck brunch yesterday morning. Great with strong black coffee – balances out the sweetness of the cake. I used scant 2 cups of sugar, and I think I will still reduce it to maybe 1 1/2 cups next time around. Took me extra 20 minutes to bake. I wonder how it would be if I sub the sugar with honey..
you’re kidding, right?!! oh my God! I love avocados! I eat them on toasted bread with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, I slice them thinly and top them with anchovies and olive oil, I place them over ceviche and tacos, I slice them in half and spoon the smooth flesh out and into my mouth..as if I was eating a yogurt, etc.. and now an avocado pound cake? A must-try for the avocado-obsessed girl that I am.
Made this and loved it! Definitely my favorite food. Could not stop eating this! The avocados made this pound cake so moist.
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