the butter
cake challenge
A tubby pound* cake, more pound (read: weight) than cake, can be shaky business. Generations have baked them into big, hulking doorstops, bereft of flavor, and largely lacking nuance. And where is all that buttery taste, anyway?
In an effort to right those wrongs, I’ve taken on pound* cake baking as my personal project, with a view toward settling on a set of ingredients that can compose a cake to have at hand for serving with berries and cream or with poached dried fruit (such as my syrupy red wine prunes), or toasting and cramming onto the saucer that holds the cup of my morning coffee. The objective, as you can probably tell, is purely self-serving: I love pound* cake.
No dinky loaf cake would make me happy, nor would a cake that involves too many extracts, too rough a texture, not enough butter, or too few eggs. It should be momentous and attention-getting—as in large, moist, and golden—and cut cleanly and decisively into blessedly thick slices. “Skimpy” is not the operative word here. Rather, I am going for impressive yet delicate, and have determined that the proportions of 4 cups of cake flour to 1 full pound of butter, leavened with 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, and enriched with 10 (!) eggs is the way to go. About the baking powder: before you quibble with it, remember my warning about overly dense and heavy cakes. The baking powder, as well as the judicious creaming of the butter and sugar, advances and broadens the nap of the cake just so and makes it as tender as can be. For seasoning, the batter is shaded with freshly grated nutmeg and mellowed with two extracts: vanilla and almond. The addition of nutmeg is a nod to old-timey cakes that employed mace, the overlay of the nutmeg seed, dried and ground. Mace or nutmeg—the choice is yours, and it would be a subjective one.
Moving and dignified, this cake is ravishing. (Even stale, then sliced, dipped in a lightly sweetened, whisked cream and egg batter, and panfried as for French toast, the cake is so good.)
However . . . .
When my baking kitchen makes great mercurial swings from old-fashioned to new-fashioned and back again, I begin to play around. The last time I enacted such baking drama with an accenting agent for pound* cake, the nutmeg was replaced with the seeds cracked open from green cardamom pods. The seeds, subsequently crushed in a mortar, were introduced into the creamed butter and sugar mixture for maximum flavor effect. Initially, the spice’s shadowy aroma in the baked cake disturbed me because my own baking heritage dictated the use of a more dulcet scent. But the cardamom contributed a serene and rounded edge to the taste of the cake. And the act of cracking the little pods and pounding the seeds became an intensely fragrant, aggressively pacifying baking step. The blueprint for a cardamon version of butter cake, the cake with maximum heft—and the delicacy of cardamom, comes directly from the center stage butter cake recipe. In the end, just-baked, released from the pan, sliced, and eaten barely warm and out of hand, the cake’s lingering flavor will enwrap you.
* Classicists take note: I am aware that traditional pound cake is without chemical leavening, and technically what follows is a butter cake. So, if you don’t mind, I am using my own elastic definition of the phrase “pound cake.” Thank you.
center stage butter cake
serving: one 93/4-inch cake, creating about 16 slices
ahead: 2 days
buttery scented batter
4 cups sifted bleached cake flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
23/4 cups superfine sugar
10 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
11/2 teaspoons almond extract
confectioners’ sugar, for sifting on top of the baked cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Film the inside of a plain, one-piece 93/4-inch tube pan (6 inches deep, with a capacity of 18 cups) with nonstick flour-and-oil spray.
For the batter, resift the flour with the baking powder, salt, and nutmeg onto a sheet of waxed paper.
Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 5 minutes. Add the superfine sugar in 3 additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion is added. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even-textured. Blend in the vanilla extract and almond extract. On low speed, add the sifted mixture in 3 additions, beating just until the particles of flour are absorbed. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl thoroughly with a rubber spatula after each addition.
Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until risen, golden, and a wooden pick inserted into the cake withdraws clean. If, after 55 minutes of baking, the top of the cake is already moderately golden, tent a large sheet of aluminum foil on the top (avoid folding down the sides). The baked cake will pull away slightly from the sides of the pan.
Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto another cooling rack. Lift off the pan, then invert the cake again to stand right side up. Cool completely. Store in an airtight cake keeper. Just before slicing and serving, sift confectioners’ sugar over the top of the cake. Serve with spoonfuls of syrupy red wine prunes, if you wish.
notes
• the mingling of two extracts lightly flavors the batter, with the emphasis on vanilla and a hint of almond
• the cake is baked in a plain, one-piece 93/4-inch tube pan (6 inches deep, with a capacity of 18 cups); a plain, one-piece 10-inch tube pan (41/4 to 41/2 inches deep, with a capacity of 18 cups) may be substituted, reducing the baking time by 5 to 6 minutes
• use a finely serrated knife to cut the cake
center stage butter cake
cake with maximum heft—
and the delicacy of cardamom
serving: one 10-inch cake, creating about 16 slices
ahead: 2 days
buttery cardamom batter
4 cups sifted bleached cake flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
22/3 cups superfine sugar
crushed and pounded seeds from 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon whole, lightly cracked cardamom pods (see notes)
10 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioners’ sugar, for sifting on top of the baked cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Film the inside of a plain, one-piece 10-inch tube pan (4¼ to 4½ inches deep, with a capacity of 18 cups) with nonstick flour-and-oil spray (including the entire rise of the tube that will be exposed to the batter). Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of waxed paper or ovenproof parchment paper cut to fit and film its surface with the spray.
For the batter, resift the flour, baking powder, and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.
Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed until creamy, about 4 minutes. Add the superfine sugar in 4 additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion is added. The creamed mixture should be light. Blend in the cardamom seeds and beat for 45 seconds. Beat in the eggs, 2 at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even-textured. Blend in the vanilla extract. The mixture may look somewhat curdled at this point, but will stabilize and smooth out after the entire quantity of flour is added. On low speed, add the sifted mixture in 4 additions, beating just until the particles of flour are absorbed. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula thoroughly after each addition. Beat for 45 seconds longer.
Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until nicely risen, set, golden on top, and a wooden pick inserted into the cake withdraws clean. The baked cake will pull away ever-so-slightly from the sides of the pan.
Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 to 12 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto another cooling rack. Lift off the pan, peel away the paper if it is adhering to the cake, then invert the cake again to stand right side up. Cool completely. Store in an airtight cake keeper. Just before slicing and serving, sift confectioners’ sugar over the top of the cake. Serve with spoonfuls of syrupy red wine prunes, if you wish.
• for the cardamom, it is preferable to use green, rather than black, cardamom (the white variety is the bleached version of the green)
• to crack open the cardamon, crush the pods lightly with a beef or veal pounder, or the bottom of a small, heavy skillet, sort out the seeds, and pound them in a mortar and pestle; using the spice in this, the authentic, fully aromatic form, contributes the finest fragrance—and taste—to the batter
• reducing the amount of vanilla extract in the batter when crushed and pounded cardamom seeds flavor it allows the flavor-and-essence profile of the spice to fully expand in the finished cake
• use a finely serrated knife to cut the cake
syrupy red wine prunes
about 3 cups prunes and syrup
ahead: 6 weeks (refrigerated)
prune compote
2 cups fruity red wine
11/2 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 pound prunes (see notes)
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (such as Cointreau)
Place the red wine, water, and sugar in a heavy, medium-size saucepan or casserole (preferably enameled cast iron). Set over moderately low heat to dissolve the sugar, stirring the contents from time to time with a wooden spoon. When the sugar has dissolved, raise the heat to high and boil for 1 minute. Add the prunes and simmer, covered, for 30 to 35 minutes, or until they are tender (but maintain their figures, and avoid cooking to mushy—this would make them so forlorn!). Let the prunes stand, covered, with the heat turned off, for 1 minute.
Carefully remove the prunes from the syrup with a slotted spoon to a medium-size nonreactive heatproof mixing bowl. Stir the orange liqueur into the red wine poaching liquid, bring to the simmer, then simmer briskly for 5 minutes. At this point, the liquid should be slightly syrupy. Remove the pan from the heat. Cool for 10 minutes.
Strain the syrup through a fine- to medium-mesh sieve directly over the prunes. Cool completely. Turn the syrupy prunes into a storage container, cover them tightly, and refrigerate. If you are using prunes with the pits intact, pit the prunes before serving.
• the timing of the prunes as they soften to tenderness (once they are placed in the red wine syrup) depends on their quality and age
• the prunes are simmered uncovered to intensify their flavor
• I use Moyer plums (prunes), with the pits intact, for the best flavor, though the pits should be removed just before serving; the dried plums are available from Bella Viva Orchards, bakingSelectedSources)
• the red wine I consistently use in this fruity stew is a merlot (preferably one with a defined black cherry/cranberry edge with hints of raspberry and plum, and a wispy vanilla finish)