Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Recipe Review: Pound Cake

(photo provided by TheCakeBarAndLounge.com)

I was so excited about a week and half ago I got a bundt pan of my very own! I've been finding all kinds of ways to utilize the whole cake thing, especially since bundt pans make beautiful cakes, and make it really easy to slice and serve without too much of a mess. As I've said before, I LOVE baking stuff and cooking for family and friends, and every Friday I make something to share with my office. This week, I decided to make a pound cake for a bunch of friends that we had over for dinner, and topped it with a homemade blueberry syrup. The recipe I used came from Food Network, specifically Paula Dean:

Grandmother Paula's Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Sift the baking soda and flour together. Add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating each egg 1 at a time. Add the vanilla and pour the mixture into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes.

__________________________________________________________________

This recipe was fantastic, creating a beautiful cake that is dense and moist, and can pair well with what topping you might want to use, but is spectacularly delicious by itself as well. I decided that a nice fruit syrup would be good with it, and since all I had around the house at the time was a bag of frozen blueberries, that's what I went with. For the syrup I combined the bag of blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup light corn syrup, 1 Tbsp cornstarch, and 2 Tbsp lime juice. Just bring it up to a slight boil on the stove until the syrup reaches the consistency desired. It also thickens up slightly as it cools.

(photo provided by UrbanGardenCasual.com)

The blueberry syrup was a great way to top the cake, and everyone seamed happy with the results. I would highly recommend it for pancakes or waffles as well!