Mise en place- now with 328743% more BUTTER.
I took a break from my Pumpkin Baking Fest '09 to try out another Ina Garten recipe from her Back to Basics cookbook. This Honey Vanilla Pound Cake sounded simple and delicious, so I gave it a whirl.
Recipes like this one are when a stand mixer really really comes in handy. I mean it wouldn't be difficult to do this with a hand mixer but it's nice to let the mixer blend one thing while you're putting together another bowl to throw in there also. Two things you may have to prepare for is getting your butter to "cool room temperature" and eggs to room temperature. I put the butter and eggs out on a plate before heading down to the gym, which worked out well.
Smell-o-vision would come in handy here.
The pound cake started out flat and almost caved in for the first 20 minutes or so, but as you can see it puffed up and cracked nicely on top by the end of the bake time. This is a v. rich (hi, 2 sticks of butter + 4 eggs) and delicious pound cake. The vanilla and honey combined made my kitchen smell AMAZING and you could really taste both in the pound cake. I would highly recommend you try this recipe out- but make sure you have friends to share this with- might be dangerous to leave a whole loaf at home to yourself, haha.
you have a stand mixer?? I'm SO jealous.
ReplyDeleteI hate my hand mixer because its speeds go from high to higher (no low setting)
This looks great! I've never made a pound cake before, and I was just looking at the Back to Basics cookbook last night. It's on my Christmas wish list. :)
ReplyDeleteand Nicole (above) - my hand mixer does the same thing!food tends to fly everywhere when I use it.
Ms. Newell was obsessed with this!
ReplyDelete