January 19, 2012

Thursday: Trish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake

You might ask, why another pound cake recipe? For me, pound cakes are perfect for any event and they feed the crowd easily. They are quick to fix, no rolling, no decorations, no frosting, and whatnot. Easy. 

I recently spent few hours on the net, looking for a pound cake recipe. My way of doing 'research' is by browsing through Pinterest, Foodgawker, online magz, and even Google Images. You see..I love feeding my eyes with appealing food photos which also give me some much needed inspirations later. Frankly, most of the recipes I tried were triggered from those delicious-looking photos.:)     
Back to the pound cake, none of the photos on the net are convincing enough for me try, not until I landed on Shirley of Kokken69's. Her beautifully captured pound cake makes me starstruck. I could see the fine texture which almost looks like a souffle..and that has brought me to bookmark her recipe and the rest is history :) Alas, my cake doesn't has the same fine texture like hers. Hmm..
The cake is moist and I love the crispy upper crust. I didn't line my baking tin since I'm out of baking sheet. :P Thus, the brown bottom layer and the messy sides. Luckily the cake came out from the tin easily. I baked this cake last night at 10PM. I fell asleep halfway through the baking time...he he and I burnt the upper crust of the cake..:P 

Sis Rima of Bisous a Toi said that the cake tastes better than Sicilian Orange Cake. Oh yeah..I had to agree with that ;) It might be the next viral!

Plainly Perfect Pound Cake 
(Adapted from Kokken69-Trish Boyle's The Cake Book)Receipe :
200g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
227g Unsalted butter (softened)
250g castor sugar (I reduced this to 200g)
4 Large eggs
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
80ml Heavy cream

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. Cream butter in a mixer at medium high speed until creamy (about 2 mins). Add sugar gradually and continue beating for 4 mins until light and fluffy.
4. Reduce the mixing speed of the mixer to low and add eggs one at a time mixing until well mixed.
5. Add the citrus zest and vanilla extract.
6. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating it with cream (added in 2 additions).
7. Pour into 2 lined 3"x 7" pound cake mold and bake for 60-70 mins or until the cake turns brown and a testing skewer comes out clean. (Trish Boyle had baked this at 162C but I had to use a slightly higher oven temperature to ensure that the cake is cooked through without dense uncooked spots)

17 comments:

  1. Babe,

    My first love on baking must be that of a pound cake. Like you, I too find it tricky to land upon a good pound cake although some bakers thought it is the easiest ever cake. But to this day, I'm still satisfied with the ones I bake. Simply put, they're perfect!

    Well, I hate to sound trite, but as always, reading you and your photography prowess, I'm at awe forever! Cheers!

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  2. Rc , same here i can never tire of eating pound cakes! nak kena buat this viral cake lah!

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  3. RC : I think you've done a great job here! You were lamenting about yours not turning out as fine crumbed... I have feeling you kind of rushed through it a little. The creaming part is very important. Make sure you adhere to the 2 and 4mins rule as stated in the recipe. I am so glad that both you and Rima like this. I can't wait to try another Trish Boyle recipe....

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  4. kak RC, Cahya loves eating pound cake too ;) simply delicious

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  5. RC
    I 'copy' apa yg Lili dah tulis kat atas tu, boleh?? hehe..

    Akan ku cuba .. diharap tidak dlm mimpi, heheh..

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  6. I have tried this too and also didn't turn as well as Shirley's. Must try again:) At least the taste is still good minus the fine crumb.

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  7. Kak Lily,

    That's so sweet of you.. :) you don't have to say that.. I'll pass few slices later eh hehehe

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  8. KG,

    Definitely a must try WAJIB try.. Lg2 you.. Tokey cake heeee heee

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  9. Shirley,

    The creaming part.. Oo I see.. I'll take note on that next time.. Will bake this cake again, definitely. Again, thanks for sharing this.. :) love it !

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  10. Cahya,

    Well, you better try bake this cake.. Worth it..

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  11. CS,

    Sila Cuba.. Akan ku tunggu hasilnya.. Hihi..

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  12. Jeanie,

    You're right about the taste.. I just need to improve the creaming part to get the fine crumbs. Hopefully we both get it next time. :)

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  13. First, I love your new blog look. It's lovely. You shouldn't say anything negative about your pound cake because it looks just perfect to me. The composition of the photos is super and I love the splash of blue.

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  14. Auww.. Sarah.. Thanks for those comforting words.. :) I shall learn more from you.. Your photos are superb and you're really2 good in styling and whatnot.. :) Happy weekend ;)

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  15. Honestly? The burnt crust makes me think about shiny chocolate glaze;) It looks adorable, and one on Kokken69 looks fabulous, so I decided to make my own perfect pound cake...Unfortunately it had uncooked parts, that really made me upset because I used higher temperature, as Shirley suggested, and I don't know what went wrong:) I'll try again and I hope it will look (and taste) as good as yours;)

    Oh, and hello from Poland:)

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