Honey Vanilla Pound Cake

Guess who is coming over for the weekend? It's the little kid sister. She is one who adores pound cake or butter cake as they are otherwise known as.

This recipe is taken from Back to Basics by Ina Garten who is better known as Barefoot Contessa. If you have seen food network's shows, you definitely know who and what I'm talking about ;)

To me, Barefoot Contessa is one who reminds me of home or at least I feel her dishes are very homely and endearing to one's heart. That to me is also simplicity at its best. She never complicates food or make it too fancy that you feel like you are fine dining. But yet, her dishes always look appealing.

Enough said, let's bake this pound cake already!! I'm salivating. Honey...Vanilla...it sounds every bit yummy to me. See my modifications in blue.

Ingredients:

226g unsalted butter at room temperature
281g caster sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vanilla extract (I used 2 vanilla pods)
1 tsp tbsp grated lemon zest or zest of 1 lemon
2 cups 200g sifted cake flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees celsius or 160 degrees celsius (fan).
2. Grease the bottom of a loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until light.
4. Meanwhile, put the eggs, honey, vanilla and lemon zest in a glass measuring cup but do not combine. Literally, this would mean no whisking or even using a fork to mix it up at all.
5. With the mixer on medium speed, add the egg mixture, one egg at a time, scraping down the bowl and allowing each egg to become incorporated before adding the next egg.
6. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
7. With the mixer on low speed, add it to slowly to the batter until just combined. To avoid overmixing, I just folded the dry mixture with the spatula instead.
8. Finish mixing the batter with a rubber spatula and pour it into the prepared pan. Smooth the top.
9. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
10. Cool for 15 minutes, turn out onto a baking rack and cool completely.

Look at how the honey vanilla pound cake turned out.

Yes that crack in the middle is just so typical of a pound cake isn't it? If it were a cake that is to be decorated, I think I will be so proud of myself - for screwing up once more. Haha I bet you can relate to that isn't it? Oh well, since this is just a pound cake, let's not get so hard on ourselves.

I love how a slice of this pound cake looks - check out the little vanilla flecks *absolute loves*. My most favourite act would be to pick the crumbs as they fall off the cake and savour it. If it's that crumbly, it can't be all that bad. By the way, did I also mention that the whole time even after baking this cake, my hands still smelt of honey and vanilla? Perfect food perfume!! Haha

I'm submitting this to Cook like a Star ALL Stars Anniversary organized by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of bakingflavours and Mich of Piece of Cake.

I'm also submitting this to Cook-Your-Books#10 organized by Joyce of bakingflavours.