Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Brown Sugar Pound Cake


Brown Sugar Pound Cake - made August 29, 2010 from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

This is a good twist on a traditional butter pound cake. The sweetener is predominantly brown sugar so it has a nice butterscotch/caramel flavor. It also has that perfect pound cake texture for those of you who like hearty cakes. It would make a great picnic cake or, if you wanted to dress it up a bit, you could glaze it with a caramel glaze. Although there's also something to be said for leaving it plain and being able to warm it up later if you wanted. But you might want to slice the cake a bit thin if you don't want to overdo. I like pound cakes but if you eat too much, they have a tendency to sit like a lump in your stomach once you've consumed them. Must be all that butter....

3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
One 1-pound box (about 2 ¾ cups) dark or light brown sugar
½ cup sugar
5 eggs

1. Heat the oven to 325˚F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan, or two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar in three batches, and then add all of the white sugar, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add half the flour, and then half the milk, beating at low speed only until the flour or milk disappears into the batter. Add in the rest of the flour, and then the remaining milk, in the same way.
5. Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and baked at 325˚F for 1 hour and 10 minutes (55 to 60 minutes for loaf pans), or until the cake is nicely browned at the edges, springs back when touched lightly at the center, and a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack or a folded kitchen towel for 20 to 30 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan with a table knife and turn it out onto a wire rack or a plate to cool completely, top side up.

No comments:

Post a Comment