Cranberry Pound Cake

This recipe is a left over from my cranberry craze this winter. I discovered how amazing cranberries are fresh in baked goods, and let me tell you, they are amazing. A little tart, but with the right amount of sugar they are just a bit sweet. It's just an amazing combination. This recipe was based loosely on a recipe I found on Pinterest for Mixed Berry Poundcake with Cinnamon Streusel. I added a glaze to it, and I got a lot of good feedback from this one from my coworkers. The texture is amazing, the sweet glaze with the tart cranberries... you've got to give this a try!

2½ cups all-purpose flour
2½ tsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, cubed
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp almond extract
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup whole milk (or buttermilk)
4 cups cranberries

12 ounces white chocolate chips

For the Cinnamon Streusel:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter or margarine, cubed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash, drain, and dry cranberries. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. Use about 2 Tbsps of the flour mixture to toss cranberries - this helps them from settling in the cake.

Make the streusel by whisking together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. You can use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the sugar until the mixture forms pea-sized crumbs. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. 

 

In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed.

 

Add in eggs, one at a time, followed by extract, sour cream, and milk, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Gradually add in the flour mixture until just moistened. Fold 3/4 of the cranberries and white chocolate into the batter.

Place half of the batter into a well buttered/greased 10-inch bundt or spring-form pan.

Sprinkle with streusel and remaining berries.

Spread the rest of the batter on top of the berries. The batter will be thick.

 

Bake for 1 hour or so, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is set and golden. Allow the cake to cool completely, and then remove from pan. Mix together about a cup of powdered sugar, several tsps of lemon juice and almond extract until mixture is the thickness you prefer. I tend toward a thicker glaze.

 

Slice and serve! This will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to 5 days.

Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake

A few weeks ago a Facebook friend posted about a local grocery store having containers on blueberries on sell for $1.39. My daughter likes them, and I had a few recipes to try, so I stopped by to get some. These weren't the puny regular size blueberry containers; these batboys were 18-ounce containers of blueberries! I bought four. I really didn't know what all I was going to do with them, but I knew they wouldn't go to waste. I've already blogged Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins, now this one. I also made a mixed berry pound cake that I will probably blog as well. This recipe was really good. The lemon just adds something amazing to it, and bumps it up a notch. But really, the glaze is one of the best parts of this recipe - absolutely delicious!

1 cup butter
1¾ cups sugar
zest of one lemon
3 eggs
½ tsp vanilla
¾ cup buttermilk
3 cups fresh blueberries
2½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Lemon Glaze
1½ cup powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsps lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest

2 tsps almond extract

If you need buttermilk, you can make it by combining 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar and topping that off with 1 cup of milk. Do this first to allow time for the milk to curdle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a separate large bowl, mix and combine dry ingredients together. Toss the blueberries with about 1/4 cup of flour.

In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest together for 3 to 5 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time and beat an additional minute per egg.

Add dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/lemon zest/egg mixture. Typically, thirds with the flour works best - 1/3 of the flour; 1/2 of the buttermilk; 1/3 of the flour; 1/2 of the buttermilk; remaining 1/3 of the flour.

Fold in blueberries.

Grease and flour either two large bread pans, three small bread pans, or a bundt pan, and pour batter into prepared pan(s).

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 min. Let pound cake cool completely. I prefer this so that the heat of the cake doesn't make the glaze run too much.

To prepare the lemon glaze, whisk ingredients together until smooth.

Pour glaze on the cake, and enjoy!

Almond Poppy Seed Pound Cake

At the store one day last month, I found a jar of poppy seeds  and while I really had no immediate need for them, I decided to get them just for the heck of it. Then a few weeks later, in my quest to try as many different kinds of pound cake as possible, I found this one on Pinterest that uses poppy seeds: Almond Poppy Seed Pound Cake. I'm not really sure what I expected, but it was actually quite flavorful. Not overly sweet, but sweet enough to still count as a dessert. This was helped, I'm sure, by the sweet almond glaze that I added to the pound cake. 

2 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsps canola oil
3 eggs
3 Tbsps poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsps lemon juice
1 1/2 tsps almond extract
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups 2% milk

Glaze

1 to 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

enough milk for desired consistency

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs, poppy seeds, lemon juice and extracts; beat until well blended.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to sugar mixture alternately with milk, beating just until moistened.

Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans or a bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool for 10-15 minutes, and then turn it onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Combine glaze ingredients, and then drizzle over cake.

Printable recipe

Orange Pound Cake

This has a been a year for trying new things for me. I have tried about a half dozen different pound cake recipes so far, and I really haven't been disappointed with any of them. Another thing that has been new for me this year is working with fresh citrus fruit using zest and juice in recipes. There really is nothing quite like it. Seriously. You should try it! I found this recipe for Orange Pound Cake Mini Loaves on Pinterest, and decided that this would be a great Monday treat at work. It went very well and I received quite a few compliments on it. I decided to just use regular loaf pans and it worked well. Another alteration is that I used about 1/2-1 tsp of almond extract in the glaze. It was a divine addition.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup orange zest

For Simple Syrup:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup sugar

For Glaze (optional):
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsps freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease and flour four 5 3/4" x 3 1/4" x 2" mini loaf pans or 2 regular size loaf pans and lay a strip of parchment paper along the bottom and up the two long sides of each pan, pressing the paper into the corners of the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Measure buttermilk, orange juice, and vanilla into a measuring cup. Set aside.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until creamy. Blend in sugar and beat for a few minutes until light and fluffy.

 

Mix in eggs, one at a time, and orange zest, and beat until well incorporated.

With mixer on low, slowly pour in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Mix in half of the buttermilk mixture. Blend in another 1/3 of the flour mixture and remaining buttermilk mixture. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until just blended.

Divide batter between prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

While loaves bake, prepare orange simple syrup. Stir together 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup sugar in a small pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat while occasionally stirring, then reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Remove pot from heat and set aside to cool.

When cakes are done, cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack. Set rack over a sheet pan or piece of foil, and using a brush or a spoon, soak each cake with simple syrup.

 

Allow to cool completely. For glaze, whisk together powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp almond extract and enough orange juice for a smooth spreading consistency (about 1 1/2 Tbsps) in a small bowl. Drizzle over cakes and allow to set and harden before wrapping loaves or storing them in an airtight container.

Lemon Pound Cake

I have fallen in love with lemon this year. I keep several lemons in my refrigerator at all times now. The smell of fresh lemon zest ranks among one of the best in the world to me. So when I saw this recipe for Lemon Pound Cake on Pinterest, I had to give it a try. I upped the ante on the recipe though by adding a sweet lemony glaze to the pound cake. It. is. so. good. I received so many compliments on this one at work (I took it in for one of my "Monday treats." My mom asked for one to take to a party and liked it so much that she has already asked me to make three for her for an event next month! The fresh lemon juice and the zest just add such a fresh citrus spark to this cake. You really should give it a try!

3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
1.5 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
5 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Glaze

1-2 cups powdered sugar

1-3 Tbsps lemon juice

1/2 tsp almond extract

1-2 tsp lemon zest

Frosting

1.5 cups unsalted butter

1.5 lbs powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp of lemon zest

3-6 Tbsp of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray or butter and flour two loaf pans or one large Bundt pan. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, shortening and sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each one.

Add dry ingredients in three additions to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.

Mix in lemon juice and zest.

Pour batter into prepared pans.

 

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely. Note, I've made this pound cake twice now, and both times, I've lost large chunks of my cake when I turned it out of the pan. Still working on that... BUT, add the glaze and you will not care!

To make the glaze, add the almond extract and enough lemon juice to your powdered sugar so that it is thick enough to drizzle, but not too runny. Add in lemon zest. Drizzle onto completely cooled cake.

Key Lime Poundcake

As with many others my age who grew up in the 80s, we were inundated with offers of meals that were faster and easier to make. Microwaves could cook entire meals, and nearly everything came from a box. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I've learned lately, that it really isn't THAT much harder to make things from scratch. I had never had homemade pound cake until a couple of years ago. All I had ever had was Duncan Hines pound cake, and while it is tasty, it is only good until you have the real thing. I no longer buy it, because pound cake is so easy to make. I also never knew that there were so many varieties of pound cake. The past year I've made about five or six different kinds of pound cake, and I haven't been disappointed in a single one. 

This one for Key Lime Pound Cake, I came across on Pinterest while searching for recipes that use fresh squeezed lime or lemon juice. This cake is so fresh and flavorful and moist. The bad thing though is that key limes only produce about a teaspoon or two of fresh juice each, so I had to juice a lot of key limes and then still had to use some regular limes to make up the difference. Still, I highly recommend this recipe.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lime zest
1/4 cup fresh Key lime juice

Key Lime Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp fresh Key lime juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat butter and shortening at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy.

 Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

 

Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla, lime zest, and lime juice.

 

Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (12-cup) tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. 

To prepare Key Lime Glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, fresh Key lime juice, and vanilla until smooth. Brush over top and sides of cake. Cool completely (about 1 hour).