“Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it?”
George Herbert
The Pound Cake…very versatile!
Time & again I return to making my first love in cakes, the pound cake. I have 1 bundt pan which I guard with my life & love the way it turns out my precious pound cake. Perfect & pretty every single time, for the ‘once in a while’ rich buttery cake that uses 200gms of butter, this is just the most satisfying bake. 
A traditional British Pound Cake recipe would specify one pound each of flour, butter, eggs (8 eggs), sugar, and several kinds of dried fruit (currants, sultanas, and raisins, with perhaps a lesser quantity of glacé cherries). (These quantities are too great for most modern families, but the cake can be made with half quantities or less.) It is usual to weigh the eggs first and then use the same weights of the other ingredients; with a traditional pair of kitchen scales, the eggs are simply used instead of weights.
I made this version of the pound cake a few days ago with 2 things in mind…first I wanted to use flavoured orange sugar because I had bought some really orange oranges, & secondly, I wanted to use up some left-over ganache which was crying to be used every time I opened the fridge.
The original recipe is one I have adapted from Better Homes & Gardens & is my all time favourite recipe; it gives me a beautiful crumb & rich texture. The only deviation from the basic recipe is that I always substitute 1/2 a cup of plain flour with whole-wheat flour. 
Butter- 1 cup or 200gms
Eggs – 4 (large)
Sugar – 1 cup, granular
Butter- 1 cup or 200gms
Eggs – 4 (large)
Sugar – 1 cup, granular
Zest of 2 oranges
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Whole-wheat flour – 1/2 cup
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Ganache – 1/2 cup (Recipe here)
Whole-wheat flour – 1/2 cup
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Ganache – 1/2 cup (Recipe here)
- Grease and flour a 10″ bundt pan. Preheat oven to 325deg/175deg .
- Sift together both flours + baking powder+ salt .
- Cream butter and orange sugar well, & then beat in the eggs 1 by 1, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in essence .
- On low speed, beat in the flour bit by bit till well incorporated (4-5 goes) .
- Turn 1/2 the batter into pan, layer evenly with the ganache, & then top with the rest of the batter. Bake for approx 1 hr till done . (If top seems to be getting too brown, loosely cover top with foil until done.)
- Leave in pan for 10 mins to cool, and then turn it out on rack to cool completely.
Note: Can also make a Marble Pound Cake, by folding the ganache into 1/3 of the batter OR ……a Coffee &Dark Chocolate Chip Pound Cake one too.
(Am off down South for a week…will be missing for a few days. See you soon!!)