Skip to main content

Light Pound Cake


Light Pound Cake
Source: Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.), pg. 111.

This "light" pound cake is reminiscent of a sponge cake. It does have a light, airy texture and it is very moist. We thought it was delicious and very good served with sweetened fruit in syrup. I loved the slightly crunchy top.

Maida says that you can ruin the recipe by underbeating the eggs at the beginning or overbeating the flour and butter additions at the end. The recipes says to beat the eggs for about 25 minutes. This sounds excessive to me and I'm not sure if she was referring to using a hand-held mixer. I mixed it for about 15 minutes in my stand mixer. You will need to cover the mixer with a towel to avoid a mess! I did not have any problems with it and it turned out fine.

1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup unsifted unbleached flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
Optional: confectioners sugar (to sprinkle on before serving)

Adjust oven rack one-third up from the bottom and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10x4 inch tube pan (she recommends one with a fancy design - I just used my plain one since it is the only one I have that is large enough). Dust with fine dry bread crumbs and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat. Set aside to cool.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat the eggs with the vanilla and sugar on high speed until the mixture is pale and falls in a slow ribbon when the beaters are raised (15-25 minutes). (See the note in the introduction (above) about this step.

Lower the speed and add the cooled melted butter.

Add the dry ingredients and mix only until incorporated. Do not overbeat.

Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes until the top springs back when gently pressed with the fingertips. If the top is getting too dark, cover loosely with foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Cover with a rack to invert the pan and remove the cake. Let stand until completely cool. She says that the top may fall slightly and this is okay. One small section of my cake fell a bit while it cooled. Maida recommends serving this in thin slices sprinkled with confectioners sugar.


Comments

Lindsey @ American Heritage Cooking said…
This looks delicious! A perfect light dessert after lunch!
April 5, 2014 at 6:20 AM
Angie's Recipes said…
This looks so light and beautiful!
April 6, 2014 at 3:47 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. viii. I made these brownies again a few days ago and they were just as good as ever. This time I made half with York Peppermint Patties and the other half with Andes mints. There wasn't a noticeable difference in taste. The ones with the Andes mints were pretty with the mint green color but the ones with Yorks are equally pretty. When Maida Heatter's first book (the above-mentioned title) won the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame Award in 1998, she accepted her award on stage and began to toss out these brownies to the audience. Everybody clamored for one and went wild. The original recipe came from a local deli in her area and did not include the mints (that recipe is available in the first edition of this book). She tinkered with the recipe and added the mints which do not melt during baking. I've been itching to ...
9 comments
Read more

Mulattoes

Mulattoes Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 199. Of the hundreds of Maida Heatter cookie recipes, this may be the most famous. These are chunky but soft, extremely chocolaty,  full of nuts and chocolate chips. Sinfully delicious! They are easy to make. The trickiest part may be the baking time. After making them numerous times, I have learned to only bake them 10 or 11 minutes at the most, then remove them and allow them to sit on the hot baking pan for about 5 minutes. They will be extremely soft to the touch but eventually they firm up nicely.  I just use my hand mixer for these. Although the recipe states that it makes 18 large cookies, I find that the yield is slightly higher, even when making them fairly large. I use a tablespoon scoop to form the cookies. 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 3 oz. (3/4 stick) butter 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking pow...
12 comments
Read more

Frozen Chocolate Mousse

Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.) , pg. 228. Here is a dessert sure to make any chocoholic swoon. Silky and decadent, this frozen mousse is like a rich chocolate ice cream. It is really easy to make - all the folding required will give you a workout but it is worth it! The crust can be made with crushed wafer cookies or you could even buy a ready-made crust. If doing your own, the instructions say to apply the crumbs around the sides of the pan (use a springform pan) but I did not do this - I just made a bottom layer. You will have to run a sharp knife around the pan before releasing the catch on the pan. The mousse is soft (even after freezing) and it will need to be put back in the freezer as soon as possible after serving. Maida Heatter recommends covering the mousse with either whipped cream, strawberries or chocolate leaves. I did not do either, it looks lovely without a topping. Crust 8 oz. choc...
5 comments
Read more