Chocolate Espresso Pound Cake

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I have an addiction to decorative Nordic Ware loaf pans. I’m not proud of it, but it is what it is. I just can’t resist those fabulous designs, and now that I have discovered the wonders of Baker’s Joy baking release spray, there’s just no stopping me! Over the weekend I spent a good bit of time in the kitchen, and decided it was time to break that pan in. I did so with this recipe, a combination of a number of pound cake recipes I’ve made in the past. It is dense and chocolaty, and so delicious. Feel free to stir in a half cup of mini chocolate chips (tossed with a tablespoon of flour) if you want it to be extra chocolaty. You could also drizzle it with icing or ganache. I like it plain with a lovely dusting of powdered sugar.

Chocolate Espresso Pound Cake

2 t. espresso powder

 T. hot water

½ c. buttermilk

3 sticks of butter, room temperature

1¼ c. granulated sugar

3 large eggs

½ T. vanilla

½ t. kosher salt

½ t. baking powder

¼ c. + 2 T. cocoa powder

1 c. flour 

Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325° F. Spray a 5” x 9” loaf pan (I used this gorgeous one) with Baker’s Joy; set aside.

In a small bowl dissolve espresso powder in hot water. Stir into buttermilk; set aside.

In the work bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 5-6 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla, salt, baking powder, and cocoa powder, and mix until combined.

With mixer on low add flour and buttermilk mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool 20 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar if using a beautiful Nordic Ware decorative pan like I did, or drizzle with icing or ganache.

Coconut Cream Pound Cake with Toffee Crunch Topping

Ever since making that Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting a couple of weeks ago, I haven’t been able to get coconut off of my mind. Today I wanted something a bit less labor intensive, and, being in the mood for pound cake, came up with this creation, using my wonderful new Nordic Ware loaf pan. I call this Coconut Cream Pound Cake with Toffee Crunch. Marvelous with a morning cup of coffee, but frankly, it’s just plain suitable anytime of the day.

Coconut Cream Pound Cake with Toffee Crunch Topping

½ c. unsalted butter, softened
½ pkg. (4 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1½ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 t. coconut extract
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
¾ c. cake flour
¼ t. baking powder
1 c. flaked coconut

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Spray a 9” x 4” loaf pan with Baker’s Joy; set aside

In the work bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and cream cheese until well blended, 3 minutes. Add sugar, and beat until light and fluffy, 7 minutes.

While mixer is running, take this opportunity to place coconut into a food processor and pulse 5 to 6 times; set aside. To the mixer contents, beat in eggs one at a time; stir in coconut and vanilla extracts. With mixer on low, beat in flour and baking powder just until moistened. Fold in chopped coconut.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for one hour, or until knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.

Coconut Glaze

½ c. sifted confectioners' sugar
1 T. half-and-half
¼ t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. coconut extract
¼ c. crumbled Wickedly Prime Toffee Coconut Cashews

Whisk together all ingredients except cashews. Drizzle over top of cake. Sprinkle cashews over glaze before it sets.

Brazilian-Style Pound Cake

Normally, and you're just going to have to take my word for it, I don't moan when I eat pound cake. Moans are generally reserved for things in the steak and seafood categories. And, truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of pound cake. I make pound cake, because it's easy, and can be dressed up in a variety of ways. I also appreciate that it can be enjoyed as easily for breakfast as it can be for dinner. Essentially, it's versatile, but that's hardly high praise.

All of this changed when I tried this recipe for Brazilian-Style Pound Cake that I found on the Eagle Brand website. Whether you are a fan of pound cake, or not. Whether you make a lot of pound cake, or not. This is different from anything that you have ever made or consumed in the past, I guarantee it. I don't know about you, but I have never used a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pound cake before, and, oh boy, what a difference that makes. This also calls for an entire pound of butter, so you know that it is going to be rich, and dense, and good. It is all of these things. It also has a wonderfully crispy exterior, and rich, almost chewy interior, with that pound cake denseness that you love, a delicate sweetness, and wonderful flavor. This is the absolute apex of pound cakes, and I insist that you try it!

Brazilian-Style Pound Cake

1 pound (4 sticks) butter
2-1/4 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar, for garnish

Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease and flour (or thoroughly coat with Baker's Joy) a 10-cup Bundt pan; set aside.

In the work bowl of a stand mixer beat butter on high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in sugar and eggs. Beat on high-speed for three minutes. Blend in sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and lemon peel. In a medium bowl whisk together flour and salt until blended. With mixer on low slowly add the flour mixture to egg mixture, beating until blended. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake for 90 to 95 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 30 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely. Generously dust with powdered sugar prior to serving.

You can also make small cakes, as I did, using this adorable snowflake silicone mold pan. I baked these for 27 minutes, allowed them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turned them out onto a wire rack.

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Disclaimer: I received compensation from Eagle Brand Milk to create this post.

Kentucky Butter Cake

I learned two things over the weekend. First, I really love Cookies and Cups’ recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake and, second, I do not, in a BIG way, like Nordicware's cathedral style Bundt pan.

The cake, slightly adapted by Cookies and Cups from Allrecipes.com is an easy to make, totally delicious, dense and buttery cake that, admiringly, only gets better with age. We enjoyed ours for dessert, but my guess is that it would make an excellent brunch cake, and I am about to find out if it makes for a good trifle.

As far as preparation, it just could not be easier, as everything is dumped into a mixing bowl and then beaten together all at once. I initially balked at this, hearkening back to my old Home Ec days when butter and sugar was supposed to be creamed together before adding flour, and then flour and buttermilk was to be added alternately, but I followed the directions to the letter and the cake was divine.

And this brings me to the wretched Bundt pan that, having now tried five times, has yet to result in a full cake. Yes, I greased. Yes, I floured. More than I should have, in fact, and still, the proper use of this pan ended up yielding a cake that looked like this. You can only imagine the difficulty in photographing this one.

Initially, after my fifth failure, I'd placed the pan into the donation box, but then I thought that a bit of a cruelty. I mean, this thing is a menace to society. Why inflict it on anyone else? And so, into the recycle bin it went, hopefully giving it new life as, I don't know, a cookie sheet, or something.

Needless to say, it is back to my vintage tube pan for the next cake, or perhaps a spring-form pan, or maybe even just a simple loaf pan. The cake is well worth trying, the pan, well, run from it!

Kentucky Butter Cake

Cookies & Cups

1 cup butter, cubed at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

Butter Glaze

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Grease a 10” Bundt pan with butter or shortening very liberally. Dust the pan with flour and set aside.

Place all the cake ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for 30 seconds and then increase the speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 65-75 minutes until a toothpick entered into the center comes out clean.

When the cake is done make the glaze. Combine all ingredients into a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir continuously until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Do not bring to a boil.

Poke holes all over the warm cake using a knife and pour the glaze evenly on the cake while still in the pan.

Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan and then invert the cake onto a serving plate.

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What’s for Dinner?

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German Chocolate Pound Cake

I am a plain cake kind of girl. I like a cake that is simple, not overly sweet, and, well, frankly, portable, because I love to enjoy it while curled up on the couch with a cup of hot spiced tea and a favorite book. I realize that I may be singular in my plain cake love, but you may change your mind once you taste this vintage recipe (another from my mother's recipe box).

My mom used to make this when I was a kid. She served it either with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of hot fudge sauce (you might try this one), or marshmallow sauce (Melissa's makes wonderful dessert sauces if you don't care to make your own). I must confess to having a bit of a weakness for the latter, which is really nothing more than a jar of marshmallow fluff, thinned to the desired consistency with simple syrup. Either way it is an excellent way to satisfy an afternoon craving. 

German Chocolate Pound Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons butter flavoring
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 4-ounce package German Sweet Chocolate

Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease and flour a 9" tube pan; set aside.

Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flavorings and buttermilk. Sift together the flour, soda, and salt, and add to the creamed ingredients, beating just until blended. Soften German Chocolate in the microwave (about a minute should do it), and add to the mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick that has been inserted 2" from the stem of the pan. Remove from oven when done, turn out onto a plate, and cover with a tight fitting cake cover while the cake is still hot and leave covered until it has completely cooled.

This cake improves with age, so I don't serve it until day two. It lasts five days, covered, on the counter.

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Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

It was 102 degrees here today, so not the best day for cranking up the oven, but I've been in such a mood for something lemony all summer long. Having recently returned from a lengthy baking hiatus, it was good to get back into the kitchen and bake. This Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake from Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy food blog is one of the best pound cakes I've ever eaten.

The glaze was not part of the recipe. I just stirred lemon juice into powdered sugar and drizzled it over the top.

It was well worth the hot kitchen.

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Suppressing a Scream Vanilla Malt Pound Cake

It has not been a good week.  We live in a disaster area.  Yep, we've been designated as such.  The insurance company finally made it by yesterday and put us in the "massive damage" category.  It could be worse, I know that, I'm very thankful that our house is still standing.  But it's a shock to the system every morning when I open the blinds and look out at the mess that was once our yard.  Twice I've had to choke back a sob, but I'm getting used to it.

For the first four or five days after the tornado I was numb.  I'd lost my enthusiasm, energy, creativity; I was an empty vessel.  I'm coming back, slowly, and now find the hum of the stand mixer to be rather soothing.  So last night, craving something slightly sweet and simple, I made this pound cake.  It's good!  And do you know what else?  It tastes great toasted for breakfast (Yes, I had cake for breakfast.  Keep in mind that donuts are also cake.)  It also tastes great untoasted and spread with a thin layer of raspberry preserves (Sarabeth's Raspberry Key Lime is my favorite at the moment).  My guess is it would also provide a great base for a scoop of ice cream and the topping of your choice.  The malt flavor is not overt, in case you're wondering.  It just enhances the vanilla taste of this very moist, very satisfying, versatile cake.

Suppressing a Scream Vanilla Malt Pound Cake

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

5 eggs, room temperature

1-1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup vanilla malt powder (see below)

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a loaf pan.  In a large mixer bowl, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until very light and fluffy, about 7 minutes.  Scrape down sides, add vanilla, and beat a minute longer.  Turn mixer down to medium-low and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Scrape down sides.  Turn mixture to low and gradually add flour, malt power, and salt.  Beat until thoroughly combined.

Turn mixture into prepared pan and bake in the middle of the oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean 55-65 minutes.  Remove pan to wire rack and cool (In the meantime go out to dinner, as I did).  Turn pan onto wire rack, slice and enjoy.

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Barefoot Contessa's Orange Pound Cake

Friday was National Pound Cake Day, so I celebrated by, you guessed it, making a pound cake.  Since I was also making candied orange peel for a recipe that I want to try next week and had oranges in various stages of denuding all over the kitchen, I figured an orange pound cake was certainly in order.  So, while making dinner (pork chops with sausage gravy - DELISH! - and roasted asparagus), and boiling orange peels into submission, I made this cake.  It's Ina's recipe so, as expected, it was wonderful.  I cut the recipe in half so it made just one loaf and this worked fine.  For dessert this evening I served a variation by topping pieces with sliced strawberries and orange custard cream (that I halved as well).  Wonderful! 


Barefoot Contessa's Orange Pound Cake

1/2 lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup grated orange zest (6 oranges)
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, divided
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. Cream butter and 2 cups of sugar in a bowl. Mix in eggs, one at a time; add zest. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In another bowl mix 1/4 cup orange juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Add flour and buttermilk mixture alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with flour. Divide between 2 pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Make syrup while cake is baking. Syrup consists of remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup orange juice. Cook these two together over low heat till the sugar is dissolved. Spoon over cakes and then allow them to cool completely before inverting onto wire rack.

Orange Custard Cream

1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon grated orange zest 
5 extra-large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Triple Sec
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream


Combine the milk and orange zest in a medium stainless steel saucepan over medium heat and bring to a low simmer. Remove from the heat.

For more great Ina recipes, I recommend these books -

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& Ina's Garden