ABC - Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze

This is the last ABC recipe from Flo Braker's "Baking for all Occasions": Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze. This cake is on the cover of the book and looks absolutely lovely. When I read it had eggnog in it, I was intrigued. I've never had eggnog before so to the store I went, and I picked up a quart of Kemps Golden Eggnog. It smells great, very vanilla-y. I had a sip but didn't really like it much. I was hoping it would give a nice aroma to the cake and it did. For the Rum Glaze, I subbed orange juice for the rum which worked great!

I have really enjoyed baking from Flo's book and I have no doubt I will be going back to it and make several recipes again and again, as well as try new ones. If you haven't seen this book yet, definitely check it out. I love the variety of recipes in it, Flo's well-written instructions, and an ingredients list in both volume and weight measurements. A big thanks to Flo Braker for writing such a wonderful baking book!

 Starting in January 2012, we will start baking from The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge. If you have this book, please feel free to join us by emailing me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com.

ABC - Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake

Happy to see some sort of frangipane ripple! :o)

Oh boy, I'm a week late for my own baking group, the Avid Baker's Challenge. As the administrator I'm definitely not setting the right example with this post but what can I say... life happens and then priorities need to be revised. Now onto this month's baking project: Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake which is chosen by fellow ABC-er Lola of Lola's Artistic Endeavors. I love almonds and I love chocolate, so I was very much looking forward to this cake. I had leftover homemade almond paste in the freezer from when I made the Neapolitan Bars (I doubled the almond paste recipe so I'd have extra in case I needed it later).

HCB - Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

This week's recipe for the Heavenly Cake Bakers was the Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cake. Perfect timing! I recently got some vanilla beans from Kitchen Window and was contemplating what to put them (so many choices!!). Even though I stored the vanilla beans inside the cupboard, as soon as you entered the kitchen, you could smell their aroma. Just wonderful! Who came up with the term "plain vanilla" anyway? There's nothing plain about vanilla beans!!!

A slice each of the Vanilla Bean Pound Cake for hubby and I :o)

ABC - Spicy Yogurt Pound Cake

This post comes to you from beautiful Morocco where I'm vacationing. It's beautiful and sunny here, with temperatures in the upper 80s. Food is super fresh here; from seasonal vegetables and fruits (I've especially enjoyed the ripe strawberries), to meat (chicken is slaughtered and plucked upon buying – doesn't get any fresher than that). Did I mention the breathtaking scenery?

Seville Orange trees are used as street decoration pretty much everywhere in Morocco

Koutoubiya Mosque in Marrakech in southern Morocco

That's the Mediterranean Sea in northern Morocco. We brought chairs with us and enjoyed the sound of the waves.

A little park with water fountains right outside the condo I'm staying in

Back to business... baking business, that is. This month's recipe for ABC of the Month, Spicy Yogurt Pound Cake, is chosen by yours truly.

When I read the ingredients list, I was intrigued immediately: yogurt, butter, brown sugar, warm spices like cinnamon, allspice and cloves, orange zest, cocoa powder, and finely ground nuts (I used almonds instead of walnuts). Baking in a different kitchen (and country) always comes with hurdles. I couldn't find allspice so I omitted it, and I used all granulated sugar. Without a regular oven, I made due with a large Tefal toaster oven which did its job really well. One big advantage though: easy access to 82% European-style unsalted butter and the freshest farm eggs you could ever find.

My mom and I baked up a storm on Sunday. We served the pound cake (and the other goodies) at a familygathering and everybody loved it. My personal opinion: the cake was delicious and moist. The wonderful flavor of almonds came through really well, and so did the orange zest. The spices gave the cake a really nice aroma and lingered in the background without overpowering the cake.

Don't forget to check out the ABC blog roll: Wafae and Chaya. And, if you'd like to give this recipe a try, you can find the recipe for it HERE.

My mom's holding the plate :o)

Bon appetit!

SMS - Perfect Pound Cake

This week's SMS recipe, Perfect Pound Cake, was chosen by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. At first I planned on making 3 mini loaves on Sunday; plain, espresso/chocolate marbled, and lime poppy seed respectively. Unfortunately, some unexpected errands came up and I only had time to make one large loaf. A few SMS bakers had commented that the recipe as-is was a bit too plain so I opted for the espresso/chocolate marble. I made a few more changes to the recipe which I noted in the final thoughts/tips section.

The pound cake took a little over an hour to bake. After the cake cooled completely, I cut a few slices from it. I loved the marbled look and the smell of freshly ground espresso beans. The cake's tender crumb was spot on. And it tasted great. Although it was a tad dry, it wasn't too bad. Especially if you're planning on enjoying a slice with a cup of milk, hot cocoa, tea or coffee anyway.

If you'd like to give this recipe a try, please visit Michele's blog. Thanks for a great pick, Michele. We enjoyed it a lot.

Beat until fluffy and pale-colored.

Divide the batter and add ground espresso and Dutch cocoa.

Sniff... this batter smells great.

Ready to go into the oven.

After just a little over an hour in the oven, it looks like this.

An inside look into the beautiful loaf of pound cake.

Marbled slices of espresso/chocolate pound cake.

The cake's texture was soft and tender.

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby enjoyed this cake and he normally doesn't like pound cake as they're usually very dry and incredibly heavy and dense. His rating: 8.5 out of 10.
• To give you some insight on the dryness of the cake: on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means perfect moistness and 10 means super-dry, my husband gave it a 3.
• Ingredient changes: used a total of 1 cup + 2 Tbsp of sugar. Once I divided the batter in half, I added 1 Tbsp of freshly ground espresso and 2 Tbsp of Dutch cocoa (sifted).
• Instruction changes: beat room temperature eggs and sugar together until fluffy and pale-colored. Drizzle melted butter into egg/sugar mixture while beating. Alternate flour mixture and cream/vanilla mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture.
  
• Why? I learned that leaveners, such as baking powder and baking soda, increase air bubbles already present in the batter; they don't create air bubbles. Hence my decision to beat as much air into the egg/sugar mixture before adding the flour.
• Check out the SMS blog roll to see how other SMS bakers baked up this pound cake.