The Hubby’s birthday was this past week. Visions of creating a big, decadent–and pretty–cake for him never materialized in my mind. The three-layered white-chocolate frosted chocolate cake that I blogged about a few weeks ago? Not for my birthday boy. No, I was blessed with a man who doesn’t eat frosting. Or anything sweet, really. My friends are convinced we’re the perfect match in that way, but even if I don’t eat super-sweet stuff either, I do find delight in baking it! The Birthday Boy’s request was simple, however: he wanted pound cake.
Let me give you the low-down on this cake. Being a fan of “the story behind” things, I decided to research just how we got pound cake. This bread-like cake is apparently European (approximately early 1700s) and comes from the equal measurements of ingredients. In a day and age when illiteracy abounded, the simplicity of 1 lb butter, 1 lb flour, 1 lb eggs and 1 lb sugar allowed bakers to easily recall the process for making this dessert when they hadn’t the ability to look up a recipe.
Before you balk at the idea of a whole pound of butter (measured such from the era; measuring by weight was standard, not by cups/tsp, etc.), realize that this was a very large recipe that would feed multiple families, not your standard 2.5 children homes. It also contained no leavening agents. The invention of stuff like baking powder has now allowed us to trim down this recipe. This was news to me.
My grandma once told me that her pound cake was healthier than other types of cakes. Legendarily, pound cake should have enough saturated fats to send a healthy child into cardiac shock, so I was confused by this. It wasn’t until I made my grandmother’s recipe for John’s birthday that I realized grandma was correct. Looking for a sweet, dense treat bursting with flavor? This won’t replace your vegetables, by any means, but skip the cheese cake or the chocolate cake and make the version of pound cake my grandmother calls “Swedish Almond Bread.”
Swedish Almond Bread
Mix:
1 egg and 1 stick (1/2 C) butter
In separate bowl, mix:
1 1/4 C flour and 1 tsp baking powder
Add dry ingredients to butter mixture.
Add:
1 1/4 C sugar, 2 tsp Almond extract, and 3/4 C half and half (probably could substitute skim milk)
Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for ~50 minutes. Double recipe and pour into bundt pan.