In addition to the pineapple on a stick, I decided to make a recipe for pound cake which I saw on the back of the box of light brown sugar. Unfortunately, I was short heavy cream by half a cup, so I only made half as much sweetened whip cream as I could have made.
[20100830][20161018 Edit]
I remember growing up eating Sara Lee pound cake, and would have never imagined one day making pound cake instead of just buying it! Well, apparently making pound cake from scratch is simple!
It was also a great learning experience. In particular, I learned why pound cake tastes so delicious: sugar and butter! I'll definitely make some sort of pound cake again soon.
[20100917]
Ingredients for Brown Sugar Pound Cake:
Step 1a: 1 cup packed light brown sugar
Step 1a: 1 cup butter
Step 1b: 4 eggs
Step 1c: 1 tsp vanilla extract
Step 2a: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Step 2a: 1/2 tsp baking powder
Step 2a: 1/4 tsp salt
Ingredients for Sweetened Whipped Cream:*
1 cup heavy cream*I cut all the ingredients here in half to make half as much
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Steps I Took:
Preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sprayed cooking spray into a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
In a large (stainless steel) bowl, I put in the sugar and butter (Step 1a ingredients). After the butter became malleable, I used the electric hand mixer to mix the sugar and butter until fluffy. Then I beat in the eggs one at a time (Step 1b ingredient). And then the vanilla extract (Step 1c ingredient).
In a separate bowl I mixed the Step 2 ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. I wasn't asked to, but I sifted these into the sugar mixture (Step 1 mixture). Then I began mixing the batter, and when it became smooth, I poured it into the greased pan.
At this point I started making the sweetened whipped cream. I put all the ingredients into a chilled medium (glass) mixing bowl and beat the cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks formed. I put it in the refrigerator.
The instructions were to bake one hour, but I only had to bake what I made for forty minutes; perhaps it could have even stopped baking it at thirty or thirty-five minutes. Besides having the right color, I poked the cake with a toothpick and the pick came out clean. Then I easily removed the cake from the pan and let it cool.
After it cooled, I spread the whip cream over it and then cut the pound cake into sixteen pieces (into eighths along the width and a long horizontal cut across the length).
Prepping the pound cake for transport, I transferred the pieces into a large glass bowl and threw some (washed) blackberries and blueberries on top. And then last, but not least, I sifted confectioner's sugar onto the mix.
Comments:
Unfortunately, I didn't melt the butter prior to adding it to the sugar, so I had to spend the first couple of minutes mashing the butter until it became malleable. I should have melted it a little beforehand.
The recipe instructions indicated the Step 2 Mixture (flour, baking powder, salt) was to be gradually added to the Step 1 Mixture (butter, eggs, vanilla extract) but had overlooked the instructions. With that being said, the mixing of Step 2 into Step 1 happened to be gradual anyways.
Semi-Result:
I brought the entire thing home at about nine in the evening and put it into the freezer. Then, around midnight, I was hungry and decided to try a piece (1 of the 16 pieces). It was pretty good. I also ate some of frozen blackberries and blueberries. They were pretty good, too.
[20100830][20161018 Edit]
20110409:
It's been a while since I've cooked, baked, etc. The last time I baked was in December: I made a batch of cookies for a little get together in Maryland and helped make cookies in California. I also cooked something in February or March. In any case, I feel like making this pound cake will get me cooking again.
I followed the same recipe as before, only with the full amount of ingredients.
First I melted the butter.
The Brown Sugar Dilemma:
Then I got out the light brown sugar only to find that it had hardened. I read the side of the box for softening instructions, but I was unable to adhere to either set of instructions so I improvised. I took a pot, put some water in it, and then added the sugar, letting it soak up the water while placing the pot over some heat.
Unfortunately, the pot was the same pot that had butter in it, so some of the sugar might have been on the brink of caramelizing.
While I managed to get the sugar broken up, it was more wet than it was when I first bought it. I pressed on.
The Coagulated Eggs:
I mixed the butter and sugar. Next, without thinking it through, I began adding the eggs one at a time. While the first two eggs turned out okay, when I added the third egg I saw the mixture began looking coagulated. That made me wonder if I had just cooked the eggs, because the butter and sugar mixture was still warm. I was a little worried, but I added the last egg and moved on to the salt, baking soda, and flour mixture.
The Silly Sea Salt:
I mixed the salt, baking soda, and flour together, and then sifted it. However, instead of salt, I was using sea salt, and after the first couple of sifts, I threw away any big chunks (of what I had assumed was just flour) that were in the mesh filter. But then I had realized I would have sifted out some of the sea salt, which was relatively large, especially compared to standard table salt. As such, I compensated by adding an amount of salt comparable to how much salt I accidentally removed.
After mixing all the ingredients together, things looked better. But while I didn't see any egg coagulation, I still wondered if any properties of the egg critical to the baking of the pound cake had been compromised. As such, I decided to add an extra egg.
I placed it in the oven for about 45 to 50 minutes. Afterwards, I took it out to let it cool. I also put a napkin over it, because it made me think that it'd keep the cake moist.
[20110409][20170521 Edit]
