Battle of the Pound Cakes: A Birthday Feast

Pound Cake #2

This is not the first time pound cake has appeared on this site. It's not even the first time this exact recipe for pound cake has appeared on this site, due to having a duplicate recipe in the box that I didn't know about and didn't check against the existing version until... just now. There are about a billion more pound cakes in the box to make, but I'm still including this duplicate version because I was able to improve it this time around (probably because I didn't realise I had already made it), so I think it's worth giving you the new and improved version (hint: MIX MIX MIX).

We've discussed how the taste of pound cake is the taste of my childhood, and there's not a lot of breakfasts I like more (other than croissants of any variety). So in honour of my mom, who taught me the joys of pound cake and whose birthday was last weekend, here are two recipes for pound cake for you to choose from. If you decide, like me, to make both within a week of each other you should probably first buy stock in the flour company, because this will run down your supplies faster than you can say 'gluten-ful, please'. On the bright side, you don't have to worry about dirtying very many dishes because both of these come together in no time with one bowl each.

Pound Cake #1

Pound Cake #1

Pound cake #2

Now, on to the secret for Pound Cake 2 below: As mentioned, I previously made this recipe (from a different handwritten recipe card) in the dark ages of this site back in 2015, but I couldn't figure out why the cake fell so fast- the day I baked it, it was fluffy and light, but by the next morning, it had sunk into a bit of a claggier, denser cake and I was disappointed. At the time, I googled 'prepared flour,' because I didn't know what it meant and found nothing on the internet, so I just sifted it (since nearly all the recipes in the box require this) and called it a day. This time around, I had forgotten all of the above, so I googled it again, found nothing, and (weirdly) came to the same conclusion. I had sifted it, shrugged my shoulders and was on the verge of dumping it into the mixing bowl when suddenly I had a thought: what if I googled 'prepared flour' in French? I speak French and it occurred to me that, since they're known for their patisserie, maybe they'd have something similar. I searched for 'farine préparée' and sure enough, I hit the jackpot. 'Prepared flour' no longer exists outside of France, but it's basically self-rising flour with slightly different proportions of baking powder and salt.

The second secret I found this time is to go by the recipe and MIX THAT BATTER. The recipe calls for 20 minutes of mixing, which last time I figured was for hand-mixing so I shaved loads of time off. This time I put it in my mixer on low and mixed it the whole 20 minutes and it made a noticeable difference in the final product.

Pound Cake #2

Pound cake always tastes best on the first day (ideally warm from the oven!), but will last, covered tightly, up to three days. These recipes are both decadent and flavourful on their own; perfect paired with a cup of black coffee or milky tea, but if you want to dress it up they'd also serve well with a fruit compote (pears!), a dollop of yoghurt, or even a lemony cream-cheese glaze. In the run-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, this is the perfect make-ahead breakfast treat that everyone will love, so choose your favourite and make it today.

The verdict:
Pound Cake 1: Cakey, Moist Pound Cake

4 spoons out of five. It was mega-tasty, plush and velvety, but it didn't keep very well and by the second day was noticeably denser, so I'm knocking off a spoon.

Pound Cake 2: Light and Fluffy Pound Cake

5 spoons out of five. I feel like I've conquered this one and I could eat it for a tea-time snack every day.

Pound Cake, Previously: Easy One-Bowl Pound Cake (the non-perfected version of Pound Cake 2, below).

one year ago: Crazy-Crust Apple Pie
two years ago: Cinnamon Pecans

the recipe:

Cakey, Moist Pound Cake

the directions:

Preheat oven to 160C/325F.
Grease and flour a bundt pan very well.
Mix all ingredients together until well-blended and smooth, approximately 1 minute.
Pour into prepared bundt pan and bake 1 hour, until a pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

the ingredients:

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
6 eggs

---

the recipe:

Light and Fluffy Pound Cake

the directions:

Grease a bundt or large loaf pan.
Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
Mix all ingredients together and beat for 20 minutes on low speed (or by hand if you want a workout).
Bake 45 minutes, until pick inserted in thickest part comes out clean.

the ingredients:

3 c self-rising flour
1 ½ c sugar
1 c shortening or Stork
4 eggs
1 c milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

Sugar Cookies

A year ago today I made these cookies for the first time. I was home sick from work after an insane 80-hour week, and I was exhausted and knew I shouldn't be cooking, but I was excited and too wound up to sit still, so I decided to make gingerbread ladies to take into work the next day. I couldn't get the dough to roll out thin enough without sticking all over my rolling pin, so I popped the whole batch in the fridge and figured a chill would do it some good.

I took a nap, drank some LemSip, and decided to power through the evening and go to an election-watching party at the old man pub near our flat. We called some friends at the last minute who were delighted to come along and the four of us met at the pub to watch as polls started to close and states started to be called. It's worth noting that, thanks to the time difference, the first state to be called didn't happen until around 11:30pm Edinburgh time. We swore we'd leave at 11, then midnight, then after just one or two more states, and finally made it home around 2am.* Judson and I both stayed up in bed for another hour reading news articles and refreshing CNN and the BBC obsessively before falling restlessly asleep at 3am. I had set my alarm for an early wakeup so I'd have time to pop these cookies in the oven after an overnight chill and time to listen to the news before I had to get going to work, so when it went off at 5am, I didn't mind.

Until I reached over and checked my phone.

Obviously the rest is history. It was the worst week I've had in probably all of my adult life, it's been a terrible year since, and there's not a day goes by that I don't feel betrayed by my country and devastated at what's happened. The cookie dough stayed in the fridge that morning, and when I showed up for work at 10:30am, free of makeup, eyes swollen, nose still stuffy from the cold that had kept me home the night before, I knew I wasn't going to have the energy to finish that batch of cookies any time soon. So that evening it went into the freezer where I stared at it every time I reached in for some ice cubes or peas over the past year. About a month ago I finally remembered it was there and threw it out, but not without a pang of sadness for what could have been.

I let the recipe float to the back of the box, determined not to think about it again until it didn't bring tears to my eyes anymore. So a few weeks ago, right before Halloween, I decided to make these cookies (again) to invite our neighbours over for the Halloween party we were throwing. I had the same problem as last time- the dough was far too sticky to roll out, even after an overnight chill, so I ended up scooping it up in heaping teaspoons and baking it that way. This gave a much cakier cookie, puffy and soft in the middle with crisp edges and a comforting, warm vanilla flavour throughout, and while it's definitely not what the recipe intended, it was better than tossing the dough again.

Anyway, one year ago today the world made a choice. And this year, I fought against the divisions created by that choice by inviting our neighbours (most of whom we've never met) to a party at our house. It's a small thing, and it's not political, but it gave us a chance to build more community within our neighbourhood and that's something I'll always be proud of.

*There was a 20-year-old American girl at the table next to us at the bar. She was studying abroad from a uni in the Midwest somewhere, and other than Judson and I, she was the only other American at the bar. She was DEVASTATED when the first state was called for Trump, and Judson and I leaned over to offer some words of encouragement: 'this one doesn't even matter,' 'there are 49 more and we KNEW she wouldn't get this one,' etc. but the poor girl was freaking out. When we said our goodnights, she was still there with her friends. The next morning, after voicing some choice worries to Judson, that girl was the first person I thought of. I wished then that I could go back to the bar and find her name, take her out for a coffee and give her a hug. I still wish that, but my hope is that she's now back stateside, on her way to graduation, and still paying that much attention to the world around her. I hope she's not as apathetic as I was at her age, I hope she's fighting for the right people and most of all, I hope she's not letting the illegitimus carborundorum.

The verdict:

3 spoons out of five. If you like your cookies a bit cakier, this is the recipe for you. Personally, I prefer mine gooey in the middle and crisp at the edges, so while I did enjoy these, they weren't quite my cup of tea (however, they pair great with one!).

One year ago:  Crazy Crust Apple Pie
two years ago:  30th Birthday Cake!

The recipe:

Sugar Cookies

the directions:

Preheat oven to 185C/375F.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg, milk and vanilla, then beat well until smooth.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg or mace.
Blend dry ingredients gradually into wet mixture.
Divide batter in half, cover or wrap in plastic and refrigerate both halves at least one hour or up to overnight.

If you're ambitious and want to try rolling the cookies, lightly flour your counter and roll out ½ of dough at a time. Cut with cookie cutters and bake on ungreased cookie sheet 5-7 minutes until set and just brown at edges.

If your dough is as sticky as mine was both times I made these, after chilling, scoop heaping tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 6-9 minutes until dry on top and just pale tan on the edges.

the ingredients:

½ c butter, room temperature
1 c sugar
1 egg
½ c milk
½ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ c flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp mace or nutmeg

Chocolate Leaves

Halloween is my favourite holiday. I'm sure we've discussed in years past that this is probably to do with the fact that my birthday follows Halloween by less than a week, but regardless of why, Halloween is my jam. This year we decided to host our first Scottish Halloween party, and it was great. After years of throwing Halloween parties in Atlanta (nearly 10 years straight by the time we moved to Scotland, starting long before I met Judson!), it was a sad shift to stop doing so when we moved here- but Halloween isn't a big deal in Scotland, and it took a couple of years to get a decent enough group of friends who we could convince to dress up.

Also there were a couple of years in there where we were traveling for my birthday on the 31st- once in Paris, where, together with friends, we sipped glowing shots spiked with dry ice and served to us by a bartender dressed as Frankenstein, and once in Portugal, where Judson and I sat alone together on the southwesternmost tip of Europe, watching the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean while sipping ice cold beer bought from an enterprising guy with a cooler.

Those Halloweens abroad were amazing, don't get me wrong, but there's something that I love about throwing a Halloween party at home. Transforming my house into a Candy Land wonderland or a World War II USO building or, this year, a Haunted House is so much fun, and having friends over to eat Jello shots and candy and dance in the living room while shedding bits of costume is just the best. So this year, to keep it lowkey for the Scots who weren't super into the idea of dressing up, we did 'traditional' Halloween costumes. I was a witch, Judson a vampire and Holtzmann, who took home the award for cutest costume, a bat. Judson handled décor, which centred around spiderwebs, spooky old portraits of strangers we picked up years ago in a thrift store and foraged sticks, dried leaves, dead flowers and gourds. I took on the food, going for 'things that are tasty but still look spooky,' so there was tomato jam, beetroot dip, balsamic-roasted grapes and all the sweet things you can imagine, including this cake, which contained over a kilo of chocolate, all in.

Unfortunately, I froze the cake to make it easier to frost, and then frosted it with ganache which was so heavy it compacted the cake into a quite dense crumb, but it still tasted delicious and I think it might take the prize as prettiest cake I've ever decorated. The only portion of the cake that comes from the recipe box is the chocolate leaves, but through trial and error I've learned that these are not as difficult as I assumed, so here are all my best tips for making them, all in one place.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. It's just chocolate, ladies- what did you expect?

One year ago: Crazy Crust Apple Pie
Two years ago: Taffy Apples & Popcorn Balls

the recipe:

Chocolate Leaves

the ingredients:

Baking chocolate (dark, milk or white)
CLEAN ivy, laurel, mint or other leaves with a prominent vein pattern

the directions:

Wash leaves carefully in hot water. Our ivy was a little suspect, so I used soap.
Line worktop in wax paper or parchment paper
Melt chocolate carefully over low heat in a double boiler or in 5-second bursts in the microwave.
Use a paintbrush or frosting knife to spread a very thick layer of chocolate over the veined side of the leaf (layer should be completely opaque, as uniform as possible, and should go all the way to the edges of the leaf).
Make sure your chocolate layer is VERY thick- mine was close to 1/4” in thickness. This will help when it's time to remove the leaf.
If you're using a sturdy leaf like ivy, you can lay them chocolate-side up on the paper to firm up or place in the fridge if you don't live in the frigid Scottish climate.
If your leaves are flimsier (mint, etc.), lay them over the handle of a wooden spoon to give them some shape and dimension when they are set.
Once all leaves are set, remove leaf by either tugging gently on stem to peel it away or using the point of a paring knife to get it started, then peeling gently away.
MAKE MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED because you'll definitely break one or two.