POUND CAKE PERFECTION

A really great pound cake should have an even crumb with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and buttery, vanilla flavor. So let’s create a really great pound cake recipe given all we’ve learned throughout this “Cake Batter” course.

A successful cake recipe balances the ingredients that strengthen the cake structure (flour and eggs) with the ingredients that weaken and tenderize the cake structure (sugar and fat). Up until now I’ve worked from a formula of equal parts flour, sugar, butter and eggs (8 ounces of each). While that formula is certainly balanced, I found that a pound cake made following the strict quatre quarts recipe is less than ideal. It’s fairly dense, a little chewy and has a slightly flat taste. Before we start perfecting our recipe I’m going to introduce one more concept; the “Baker’s Formula” or “Baker’s Percentage”.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 large eggs plus 3 yolks, room temperature (about 9 oz, 255 g) (112%)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 oz whole milk (1/4 cup, 60 ml)
• 8 oz (1 ¾ cups, 225 g) cake flour (100%) See Note #1
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 10 oz (1 1/4 cups, 285 g) granulated sugar (125%)
• 9 oz unsalted butter (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons, 255 g) room temp (112%)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to at 350°F.
2. Combine the eggs, vanilla and half the milk in a small bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar to the flour and mix at low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter to the flour and mix until combined. Add the other ½ of the milk and increase the speed to medium high. Mix for a full 2-3 minutes. The batter will lighten in color and texture.
4. ..............................

for full recipes please see : www.baking-sense.com

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