All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [14]
Easy Cakes For Early Enthusiasts
Brown Sugar Pound Cake
How Come Ya Taste So Good, Now?
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YOU’LL NEED
A 10-inch tube pan
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup shortening
One 16-ounce box brown sugar (light or dark, about 2¼ cups)
½ cup sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional, facing page)
1. Remember our creaming instructions? At least 1 hour BEFORE you’re ready to mix, set out your butter and eggs.
2. Position a rack so the cake will sit in the middle of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of your tube pan with parchment paper and spray the sides and bottom with baking spray. (You can also prepare the pan later, while you’re patiently creaming the butter.)
3. Cut up your butter into pats and drop into the bowl of your mixer. Cut your shortening up into 4 parts and add to the bowl.
4. Start your engines and cream the butter and shortening together on medium speed.
5. Combine your sugars together in a separate bowl, then add them, ½ cup at a time, to the creamed mixture, beating 1 to 2 minutes between additions.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating 1 to 2 minutes between additions.
(See? You learned so well the first time, I don’t have to write as much.)
7. While you’re creaming or mixing, in your own sweet time, dry whisk your flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl.
8. Once you’ve added the eggs, slow the mixer down to low speed and add your flour mixture and milk to the batter, alternating between the two. Remember our previous ratio? Add 1 cup of dry ingredients for every ⅓ cup of wet. Beat after each addition. Shift the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for 1 minute more.
9. Slow that mixer slightly and add the vanilla extract. After 1 minute, slow the mixer as low as you can go and add the pecans.
10. Pour the batter into the prepared tube pan and center it in the oven. Bake for 70 minutes or until a toothpick or thin knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
11. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan using our plate-over-pan method and flip it onto a cake rack (see page 28). Continue cooling the cake.
12. If you like, cover with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
I like the Brown Sugar Pound Cake just the way it is, but if you like frosting, or say you bake it a little too long and you know it might be too dry, use this recipe. Just frost the top and let a little drip down the sides. You can get it to drip by just adding extra frosting to the edges and using your spatula to lightly pat down the frosting there.
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YOU’LL NEED
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
One 16-ounce box confectioners’ sugar (about 3 ¾cups)
1. Using a mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese exactly the way you creamed the butter and shortening for the cake.
2. Add the vanilla extract and beat.
3. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, the same way you added the regular sugar to the batter, ½ cup at a time. Beat until smooth.
4. Now, if your frosting isn’t stiff enough, add a little more confectioners’ sugar. If it’s too stiff, gradually add a tablespoon of butter or as much as you need to reach the desired consistency. Some people like it stiff, some like it soft. Nobody’s right, and it’s your cake.
OK, you’re learning so well that I’m going to shorthand some of the recipes from here on. Use what you know about creaming, beating, and cooling unless otherwise directed.
A few years ago, when my mom was short on cash but long on time, she jotted down all her favorite recipes on index cards and presented them to me in a photo album for Christmas. It was a very thoughtful gift, especially since she included helpful tips like how to “improvise” brown sugar: you stir 2 tablespoons of dark molasses into 1 cup of white sugar.
This pound cake recipe