Pound Cake

Cake Success! 
I think so anyway.  I honestly can't say that I have ever had pound cake before, that is, until tonight.  Kudos to one Mr. Warren Brown.  If you are in the market for a new cake book I highly recommend his CakeLove book which is where I garnered this little pound cake recipe.  You can check out the recipe here.
http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/ldquolcdrdquo-vanilla-pound-cake

OK, I didn't make it in a bundt pan as is the traditional baking form for this particular style of cake, but somehow I doubt that makes a ton of difference in the taste. I will let you know how the reviews from the "expert" tasters at DOC come out tomorrow.  At this point, I have to honestly say that THIS cake (at least as it came out for me) doesn't even NEED frosting or glaze or... whatever sort of sugar you may be so inclined to top it with.  It has a nice carmelizing of sugars on the top right now and it is incredibly moist. I am not sure what I expected, but I am thinking that somewhere in the back of my mind I was expecting a dense, dry cake begging for assistance from an icing/glaze/ganache.  Don't get me wrong, I seriously love a good ganache, but this cake just doesn't need it. 

For those of you who are thinking about whipping up this recipe, I feel the need to add the disclamer that it has enough alcohol in it to beg for an intervention and enough sugar to push me just to the edge of a sugar coma; which is not to say that it isn't wonderful and tasty and definitely worth going back for more, just to say that those of us who may be more "sensitive" to those ingredients will definitely be able to taste them.  (My friend Jane comes to mind, I believe she would be the PERFECT person to give this cake an honest taste test!)

It also was not the most "cost effective" recipe that I could have chosen to start my scratch baking experiments with but it was definitely worth it.  I did have to stock up on some items that I didn't have in my cake toolbox previously.  $11 for vanilla powder (2.5 oz jar), $8 for vanilla bean pods (2 good size pods), $8 in liquor (I bought the mini bottles because, well I don't have a big use for whiskey around the girl castle), cream, and sour cream.  Of course I will be able to use the vanilla powder and pods for other recipes so it was just the initial investment, but it isn't a recipe that the "average" home baker would just be able to walk to the cabinet and whip up.  I will say though, that my Great Grandmother would have recognized and been able to pronounce every ingredient that went into the mix. 

The prep time was lengthy yet SO worth it. Once I had sifted, weighed, measured, and separated ingredients and turned on the stand mixer things came together incredibly easy.  I can't say how cool it was to actually split open a vanilla bean pod and scrape out the itty, bitty seeds and then watch as they became part of the magic that was happening as I watched the paddle attachement whir and swirl its way through the beautiful stainless steel bowl right in front of my eyes.

I highly recommend this whole baking "from scratch" experience!!  At this precise moment in time, I hope that I don't have occasion to taste/use a box mix for a cake anytime in the near future... and by "near" I mean NEVER. 

So there you go, two beautiful 9" round, pound cakes ready for the first taste test.  Hopefully I will have some feedback to post for you tomorrow.  Until then, I think I need to go sleep off some of this sugar!