Recipe of the Week: Classic Pound Cake

In 2009, I discovered some fabulous food blogs which have provided me with new skills, new ideas and a whole lot of new recipes. As a result I have decided to start a regular post of my own recipes in some feeble attempt to repay my debt to all those that have provided me recipes and ideas that have won me praise. Every Friday I will be posting a new recipe. Not all will be my original recipes (sources will always be cited) but they are sure to be crowd pleasers.

First up, Pound Cake. Don forwarded this recipe to me via IM last summer which prompted an in-depth discussion. I had never considered why it is called Pound Cake, it just was. Maybe it was because that is what Sarah Lee wanted it call it, I didn't know. So you can image the "Aha!" moment I had when I realized that it earned its name because it is traditionally made with a pound of the four major ingredients. If you weren't aware of that fact you can read more about it here.

I made it for the first time a few days later and was delighted with the results. It was the best Pound Cake I've ever had in my entire life. And I though Sarah Lee was good, hah! You can see additional pictures of the preparation here. Enjoy!

Pound Cake, originally uploaded by JewellsinSEA.

Classic Pound Cake

Yield: 2 loaves (24 servings) or one 10-inch tube cake

6 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 package (8 ounces) cold cream cheese, cut into 1-inch pieces
2¾ cups sugar
1 tsp Kosher salt
4 tsp pure vanilla
3 cups sifted cake flour (see note)

Let eggs stand at room temperature about 30 minutes or until they are room temperature (no more than 2 hours).

Generously butter and lightly flour two 8-by-4-by-2-inch loaf pans or one 10-inch tube pan.

Using large bowl of heavy-duty stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat cold butter about 2 minutes on low speed, occasionally raising to moderately high speed for 5 seconds to dislodge butter from paddle. Add cream cheese. Beat on low speed 3 minutes with occasional short bursts on high speed to dislodge mixture from paddle.

Beat butter and cream-cheese mixture until waxy and well-blended. Still mixing on low, add sugar in a slow, continuous stream; this should take 1½ to 2 minutes. Add salt. Continue creaming butter and cream-cheese mixture for 5 minutes, scraping sides and bottom of bowl once halfway through. Increase speed to medium; continue mixing 2 minutes more, scraping once.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating 20 to 30 seconds after each addition or just until each egg is fully incorporated before adding next egg. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl after first three eggs. Beat in vanilla with last egg.

Gradually add about 2½ cups of flour on low speed, mixing until just blended; this should take about 1 to 1½ minutes. Turn off mixer. Fold in remaining flour by hand with a rubber spatula, just until combined.

Turn batter into prepared pan or pans. Shake pan or pans gently to distribute batter. Run a spatula in zigzag pattern through batter. Drop filled pan or pans from a height of about 6 inches onto kitchen counter to dislodge any large air pockets.

Place on center rack of cold oven. Turn oven setting to 300°F. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1½ hours without opening oven door for the first 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Bake 1 hour 45 minutes for tube pan.) Test for doneness by carefully inserting a cake tester in center. Cake is done when tester comes out clean.

Transfer to cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely before serving.

Note: You can substitute 2½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour in place of cake flour.

Source: Scott Peacock, Seattle Times: Tips — and a recipe — for the perfect pound cake

From the vine to the pot

Just finishing making a GIANT pot of spaghetti sauce with tomatoes that I grew in my garden.

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was only an hour shorter that usual but it seem a whole lot shorter than that. Here are the highlights:

• Enjoyed a quiet night at home on Friday night which included cheese and crackers for dinner, catching up on old episodes of Las Vegas and watching the movie The Break-Up which contained way too much yelling for the mood I was in.
• Woke early Saturday to head up the hill and do 5 loads of laundry.
• Learned what a London Fog is at Peet's Coffee & Tea when ordering my own "regular" drink.
• Sat at the corner table by the window and watched the world go by while my clothes tumbled around next door.
• Ran home long enough to put my laundry away and hook up with Don to run to errands including Fred Meyer and Home Depot.
• Spent the afternoon cooking and drinking beer with Don.
• Packed up the corned beef and Irish soda bread we had prepared and headed to our "Cooking with Bacchus" evening.
• Felt like a bum when I stayed in bed until after 9 on Sunday morning only to feel worse when I realized that thanks to daylight savings time it was after 10.
• Bitched while I walked through the house changing the time on all the clocks, electronics etc. I hate the whole daylight savings bit.
• Felt the full effect of the writers strike when I realized that except for a couple of shows I am archiving my TiVo is empty.
• Headed to Don's in the late afternoon Sunday to hang for a bit while he prepared dinner for us of grilled orange chicken and baked potatoes.
• Speaking of Don he has become quite the baker of late. Shortly after my arrival yesterday he pulled a cake out of the oven. It's the third cake (that I'm aware of) that he has baked this year. I don't mind his baking AT ALL and hope that it continues!
• Tossed and turned thanks to the time change and/or a late nap and/or god only knows what, and ended up with only about 4 hours of sleep which has left me a bit wiped today.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

A bit later than usual but it's been a crazy busy Monday thus far. The weekends highlights:

• Raced out of the office Friday afternoon to beat the majority of the traffic headed northbound to join Kat for an early dinner at Outback. It worked as the commute only took a little over an hour complete with 1 work-related stop.
• Tossed and turned Friday night worried about pulling everything together for Saturday night's Fondue Party.
• Woke early Saturday morning (likely a result of the tossing and turning) to organize my grocery list for the 26,476th time and get ready to face the day.
• Had breakfast with Kat at the Queen Anne Cafe.
• Pampered ourselves (Kat & I) with a much needed pedicures.
• Purchased all of the food and gathered all of the *stuff* for the Fondue Party and with Kat's help got everything packed up with time to spare.
• Successfully pulled off the Fondue Party with the assistance of my P.E.O. sisters and a whole lot of wine. Only minor glitch was the damn chocolate fountain which if it continues to make me crazy will be thrown off the Aurora bridge it utter frustration.
• Fell into bed totally exhausted from the business of the day and tossed and turned again, this time thanks to back pain.
• Woke early again on Sunday and laid in bed and watched the movie Little Miss Sunshine.
• Picked up Kat at 9 a.m. and headed to breakfast at the Crystal Creek Cafe where we agreed after a brief discussion that pancakes should never be put on the same plate as the eggs.
• Bought a few essentials (codeword for undergarments/kitchen gadgets) at the Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip, WA.
• Made the mistake of going to Radio Shack to purchase an adapter for the Mini SD card in my cell phone. Ended up buying something that will not work in my phone that I have to return. Also had to endure the WORST sales pitch for switching my cell phone from Verizon to Sprint or AT&T (which he is still calling Cingular) in the history of the world. He had to look up the answers to every single technical question that I asked about the phones/plans etc. Yo dude, Rule #1 in sales - Know Your Product!
  
• Watched the first three of the Love Comes Softly movies that my TiVo had picked up on Saturday when Hallmark Channel had a marathon. I liked the movies but as sequels often go the first was my favorite and they went downhill from there, I have 3 more sitting on the TiVo and am still undecided if and when they will be watched.
• Went to bed early to get ready for the week ahead.
  

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Delayed due to the holiday weekend, here are the highlights of the weekend:

• Enjoyed happy hour with Don at Ray's Boathouse on Friday evening while watching the clouds block out the sunset and a few boats scoot by.
• Woke with the roosters (actually before the roosters) on Saturday morning to drive north with Don to pick up Kat and have breakfast at Maltby Cafe.
• Picked up a bunch of necessities at Costco.
• Browsed the beers and wines at Malt & Vine in Redmond so that Kat could try some different beers thanks to her "I want to try some fruity beers" proclamation.
• Played pool with Don at Rock Bottom and was pleased that I actually won a few legitimate games.
• Slept until just after 10 on Sunday morning.
• Over indulged at Sunday Brunch with my friend Barb at Salty's on Alki.
• Wandered aimlessly through the grocery store on Sunday afternoon with Don trying to figure out what in the world we wanted for dinner. Finally settled on Chicken Cordon Bleu, Rice Pilaf and green beans.
• Slept in again on Monday, oh I love holiday weekends.
• Took a walk through the neighborhood and enjoyed the gorgeous 50-degree sunny weather a bit.
• Caught up on reading The Alchemist which is the book club selection for the month.
• Unchecked duplicate songs in my iTunes library.
• Enjoyed dinner of Chicken and Rice at Don's, along with some wine, followed by catching up on episodes of Brothers & Sisters.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Time for the weekend update again, the highlights:

• Hosted a trivia night with most of "the usuals" from our pub trivia nights at Pyramid Ale House on Friday night. We divided into 2 teams and battled for the win for nearly six hours only to declare it a draw. The best part of the evening was watching friends rack their brains in an attempt to find answers to questions as the amount of beer consumed increased. Memorable names like "The Urkel Family" and "Cameron Electric" still make me chuckle.
• Annoyed by a telemarketing call from Catherine's that woke me up at 8:11 a.m. to tell me about the latest promotion.
• Attempted to get some additional sleep following the rude awakening and finally after an hour of watching TV managed to fall back asleep until just before 11:00 a.m. and then got up to deal with the kitchen nightmare and rinse the 47 empty bottles of beer and 1 bottle of wine from the night before in preparation for recycling.
• Had wanted to attend the state Democratic Caucus but decided that I had too much to do and had slept too late.
• Ran to the Metropolitian Market.
• Completed all the prep work for the Pink and Red Dips from this recipe. I've never used 1/4 cup of paprika in a single recipe.
• Enjoyed trying "new-to-me"African cuisine at "Cooking with Bacchus" event with Don at Kipp's home on Saturday night. Food included our Shrimp with Pink and Red Dips (see above), a Ethiopian soup with veggies and peanut butter, a beef stew with tomatoes, snow peas and bananas and roasted bananas for dessert. Along with lots of interesting and fun wines.
• Completed 4 loads of laundry first thing Sunday morning fueled by a triple latte and a large cup of coffee.
• Headed to Don's for a late lunch/early dinner of his yummy spaghetti with he and Kat followed by some "hangin' time" and watching the movie the The Emperor's New Groove.
• Reviewed some final details, notes and procedures to prep for the audit at work on Monday.
• Finally saw the final half of Woman of the Year which I have been sleeping through for nearly a week.

How was your weekend?

Complete Knife Set

Complete Knife Set, originally uploaded by JewellsinSEA.