TWD: Perfection Pound Cake

It's still early to post for TWD, I know, but I'll be leaving for Tokyo early in the morning (hooray!!) and so I have to post my entry now. And instead of making mixed berry cobbler that has been chosen for this week, I opted for a pound cake recipe that was completed sometime in January. I know that berries are in abundance at this time of the year elsewhere but the supply in Singapore remains the same and it's really expensive. The cobbler would have cost me at least SGD30 if I were to use a few types of berries. Call me a cheapskate but I seriously think that the cost is not justifible at all... :-P


I served the slices of pound cake with sweet potato paste and I got the idea from a picture that I saw in one of my Japanese cookbooks. The combination is really interesting, don't you think so?

The orange-fleshed sweet potato that I used gives a nice orange hue and I think it looks pretty on the cake, well, if you ignore my awful piping, that is. However, the taste of the paste is too bland for the cake, and I think I'll try out pound cake with fruit compote next time.

Perfection Pound Cake Recipe
(From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 325 deg F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan or an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan.
2) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3) Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce the mixer speed to medium.
4) Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each egg goes in. As you're working, scrape down the bowl and beater often. Mix in the vanilla essence.
5) Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is incorporated - don't overmix.
6) Put the cake into the oven to bake, and check on it after about 45 minutes. If it's browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. If you're using a 9x5 pan, you'll need to bake the cake for 70 to 75 minutes; the smaller pan needs about 90 minutes. The cake is properly baked when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean.
7) Remove the cake from the oven, transfer the pan to a rack and let rest for 30 minutes.
8) Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.