Joy the Baker » pound cake

Lemon and Matcha Marble Pound Cake

joythebaker — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:11:03 +0000

My friend makes one small mention of Rachel Zoe this morning and here I am, shoulders deep into a Rachel Zoe Project marathon.

Shameless.

I keep telling myself that I’ll just watch one more episode… one more… then I’ll think of something to write on my blog.

Five hours later… here I am, alone in my house, wearing heels and my chunky sweater. I may or may not have just shopped for a furry vest online… and I’m so invested in Rachel getting pregnant, it’s ridiculous.

I need a Rodg… or a psychiatrist… or a bottle of vodka… or just someone to come turn off this program. I’m not sure.

Swoon.

In other news… I made this really beautiful cake.

I’m so happy with this little darling. It’s marbled, green, flavorful and delicate.

Dreamboat situation.

Matcha.

The lemon portion of this pound cake is pretty simple. Lemon. Juice and zest. We all know what that is. Bright and delicious.

What’s Matcha?

Matcha is a finely milled green tea. When combined with hot water, it creates the most beautifully green, super flavorful, luxurious green tea. It’s the whole tea leaf, ground super fine so you get all the goodness of green tea in a super powerful way. Fancy.

Matcha is used as a ceremonial tea so there are often fancy whisks and bowls to accompany the tea. I forgo those items and manage to make myself a beautiful cup of matcha with just the powder almost every morning.

Besides a nice morning cup of matcha (with milk and honey), the green powder is great in ice creams, custards and cakes.

Matcha is a really lovely ingredient in baking. Green secret weapon.

But! Matcha is a tad bit more expensive than regular old green tea.

I use The Art of Tea Matcha… it’s really lovely.

Splurge a little. I think you’ll really like it.

But maybe I’m just saying that because I really want you to make this cake.

I mean really… look how pretty this is!

The brightness of the lemon. The earthiness of the green tea. Eggs, butter and sugar. This cake is delicate and impressive. See, I just used food words.

But be prepared to get stray powder on your shoes and your jeans. And please pay no mind to the gravy stain I also have on my shoes.

That’s just embarrassing… but seriously, who doesn’t love gravy?

You get the idea, right?

I’m sorry to leave you like this… it’s just that I have a few more episodes of Zoe to go.

Lemon and Matcha Marble Pound Cake

makes one 9x5x4-inch pound cake, plus 12 mini muffins (see… I had a little extra batter and I didn’t want to overflow my baking pan)

Print this Recipe!

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon

1 Tablespoon matcha powder

1 stick plus 7 Tablespoons (15 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the loaf pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Also butter a mini muffin pan or line a regular muffin tin with cupcakes papers for the small amount of excess batter. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk the eggs into the sugar. You can use a large bowl with a whisk for this. You don’t really need a big mixer for this recipe. Beat until the eggs and sugar are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract, then whisk in the sour cream. Continuing with the whisk, or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions.

Divide the batter in half (just eyeball it) into two separate bowls. In one bowl add the zest and lemon juice. In the other bowl, fold in the matcha tea powder.

Pour some of the lemon batter into the pan. Top it with a portion of the green tea batter. Add more lemon and top with more green tea batter. Fill the loaf pan, leaving at least 1-inch of room at the top of the pan for the cake to rise. Swirl gently and minimally with a butter knife to get a good swirl effect. With the remaining batter, make mini muffins or cupcakes.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. The mini muffins will take about 15 minutes and the cupcakes will take about 18-20 minutes.

Once removed from the oven, allow the loaf to rest in the pan for 20 minutes before running a knife along the edges of the pan and inverting the cake onto a cooling rack.

Avocado Pound Cake

joythebaker — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:30:09 +0000

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

Print this Recipe!

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.

Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake

joythebaker — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:13:05 +0000

Let’s play a game called Usta Wanna or… I Used to Want To.

I usta wanna be brave enough to go down the free fall water slide at the water park.

I usta wanna be a traffic cop… the kind that would dance in the street on occasion… the kind that I saw at the end of a slow evening news show sometime when I was about six. I actually still want to be one of those traffic cops. No joke.

I usta wanna take the swim test at overnight summer camp privately. Something about doing my life saving dog paddle in front of the entire girls camp made me nauseous.

I usta wanna design a postage stamp. This is the precious dream of a young girl whose parents both work at the post office.

Between the ages of 13 and 15, I usta wanna eat nothing but popcorn and orange juice. I dunno…. I never claimed to be reasonable.

I usta wanna completely negate whole wheat from my life. If I could have eaten Wonder Bread and ignored the whole wheat millet bread my parents bought as I was growing up… ooooh, how dreams would have come true. Because whole wheat seemed to be impossible to escape, it would seem that somewhere along the way I grew fond of it. For this reason, I bring you… Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake.

Let’s talk about it.

Let’s talk about how lovely this pound cake is. It was nutty and full-flavored, without having an overwhelming whole wheat density. I used white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat flour. If you can, use a good raw honey for this cake… something like Bee Raw or Ames Farm. The honey add a sweetness with character and depth, making the pound cake really delightful. I love this cake. It’s a definite go-to classic in my world.

Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake

makes 1 9 x 5-inch loaf and 6 muffins

Print this Recipe!

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks (12 Tablespoons of butter), at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour the loaf pan and muffin tins.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip the butter, sugar and honey on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute after each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the dry mixture and buttermilk in three additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans. Smooth the top down and bake the cake for about hour and the muffins for about 20 to 25 minutes. The cake will be a lovely golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake

joythebaker — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:29:55 +0000

Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake.

For this cake, simple loaf pans just don’t measure up. After one slice of the perfect, absolutely perfect cake, it became clear that when I next bake this cake (tomorrow morning), I’ll need to devise some sort of pillow shaped cake pan.

This cake is going to be my new pillow. Forget goose feathers, cotton fluff, memory foam… I want, I need, I’m not sure how I’m going to live without a Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake Pillow.

For serious.

Lemon Drenched Lemon Cakes

adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Print this Recipe!

Think of this cake as a classy version of the store bought, chemical filled version of Sara Lee pound cake. The density is only matched by the soft, moist and lemony crumb. Sara Lee? Yea, I had my suspicions too, but this cake is without a doubt, the best pound-type cake I’ve ever encountered. Love. Love. Love.

I doubled the ingredients for the syrup and spread them between the two cakes. I liked lots of syrup.

For the Cakes:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

2 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 plump, moist vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved, or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

6 large eggs, preferably at room temperature

2/3 cups heavy cream

zest of two lemons, finely grated

1 stick, plus 7 Tablespoons (15 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the syrup:

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

juice of two lemons

Making the cakes:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8 1/2-4 1/2-inch loaf pans, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Even if the pans are nonstick, it’s a good idea to butter and flour them. Place the pans on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Put the sugar and the lemon zest in a large bowl, working with your fingers, rub them together until the sugar is moist and thoroughly imbued with the fragrance of lemon. Add the vanilla bean seeds and work them into the sugar. If you are using vanilla extract, add it later, after you have added the eggs.

Add the eggs and whisk them into the sugar, beating until they are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract (if using), then whisk in the cream. Continuing with the whisk, or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions. Pour the batter into the pans, smoothing with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. As soon as the cake goes into the oven, make the syrup. After about 30 minutes in the oven, check the cakes for color- if they are browning too quickly, cover them lightly with foil tents.

Making the syrup:

Stir the water and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar melts, then bring to a boil Remove the pan from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl and let cool.

When the cakes test done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding them and turning them right side up on the rack. Place the rack over a baking sheet lined with wax paper and, using a thin skewer, cake tester or thin-bladed sharp knife, poke holes all over the cakes. Brush the cakes all over with the syrup, working slowly so that the cakes sop it up. Leave the cakes on the rack to cool to room temperature.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake with wild blueberries

joythebaker — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:38:03 +0000

Lemon and blueberry are my go-to ( by ‘go-to’ I actually mean lazy) combination. I’ve never had a bad day if lemon and blueberry joined forces at breakfast. It’s true, they never fail me.

Too bad I can’t say the same thing for the fail dogs. Have you seen the creatures? They are dogs (that have little to do with baking, blueberries or lemon) who have tried and failed in one way or another. They make me laugh. They make me cry. I was a cat person until the fail dogs changed my life.

Now back to the Lemon Poppyseed Bread with wild blueberries…

For this pound cake I tried Dorie Greenspan’s Perfection Pound Cake, instead my usual winning recipe. I wanted to see if Dorie’s pound cake was in fact perfect. After all of my dabbling and doctoring, I have to be honest and say, that I thought the pound cake was a bit dry. My fault? Possible, maybe I baked it too long. It wasn’t a complete faildog move- a thick slice with just the right amount of lemon curd, and it’s just lovely.

Perfection Pound Cake

adapted from Baking: from my home to yours

Print this Recipe!

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/3 cup frozen wild blueberries

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9-x-5-inch loaf pan. Put the pan on an insulated backing sheet, or on two regular baking sheets stacked on on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds.

Rub the lemon zest into the granulated sugar until sugar is slightly tinted yellow and is fragrant.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fit with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar mixture on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce the mixer speed to medium. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each addition. As you’re working, scrape down the bowl and beater often. Mix in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour and poppyseeds, mixing only until incorporated. Take the bowl off the stand mixer, and use a spoon to fold in the frozen blueberries. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top.

Put the cake in the oven to bake, and check on it after about 45 minutes. It it’s browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Bake the cake for about 70 to 75 minutes. The cake is properly baked when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean

Remove cake from the oven, transfer the pan to a rack and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.

Wrapped well, the cake cake keep for 5-7 days at room temperature.