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delicious and decadent dressed up pound cake for the holidays!

The Amazing Cookbook by The New York Times Food Writer and Minimalist Mark Bittman

Remember! The Tackling Bittman and His Buddies Blog Hop is open all month and now accepts any cookbook recipes so please stop by and link up a recipe or two or more and share your cookb00k favorites with us all month long!

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Pound Cake Dressed up for Easter!

My sister-in-law is from North Carolina and she is a wonderful cook. There are certain recipes she makes every year for the holidays, like Senator Russel Sweet Potatoes for Thanksgiving and Pecan Rum Cake for Christmas. She bakes the cakes either in a Bundt pan or pound cake pan and sends them on up for Christmas presents. Every year I look forward to this dreamy rummy treat for the holidays.

This Easter, my mom and dad are away traveling the south seas and so it is only my sister and I celebrating Easter with our families. While we always have a great time, I do get a bit lonely for the whole gaggle including my two brothers and their crews. I was thinking about what to bring to Easter brunch after mass at my sister’s house that would make me think of family and the pecan rum cake came to mind.

While my sister-in-law has given me her recipe for Senator Russel Sweet Potatoes, I have asked her for the rum cake recipe and gotten vague responses none of which included the recipe. I kind of think she wants to keep it to herself and that is fine and dandy, though I know eventually I will get it out of her! I figured, why press it? Why not try and recreate the recipe yourself?

Of course, we all know the idea of failure when it comes to recreating a recipe when you are doing it for a holiday is out of the question. I figured I would bake ahead of time and if the experiment was a dud, I would simply pretend it didn’t happen. I also decided to enlist my friend Mark Bittman in making the basic recipe for the cake, which was a traditional pound cake. There on page 906 of How to Cook Everything was a classic recipe for butter pound cake and I knew I had half the battle won. I figured I would make the pound cake, slip in some pecans before baking and then douse it with Meyer’s Rum and see how it all turned out!

Pound Cake

Makes at least 8 Servings

1/2 Pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus some for the pan

2 Cups all-purpose flour or cake flour

1 1/2 Tsp baking powder

Pinch sea salt

1/2 Tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional-I did not use this)

1 Cup sugar

5 Eggs, separated

2 Tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 325 Degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan (I doubled the recipe and cooked it in a Bundt pan). Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg if you’re using it in a bowl and set aside.

Use an electric mixer to cream the butter until it is smooth. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar and beat until it’s well blended, then add the remaining sugar. Beat until the mixture is light in color and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl if necessary. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Add the vanilla and beat until blended.

Mix in the dry ingredients by hand just until smooth and do not over mix or beat. Wash the beaters thoroughly, then beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. When they are ready, fold them in gently but thoroughly as the base batter is very thick.

Turn into prepared pan (this is when I placed whole toasted pecans in the bottom of the bundt pan after well greasing the pans, then I poured the cake batter over this), bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the top, which should take about 1 1/4 hours (a bit more if doubling the recipe as I did). Let the cake rest in the pan for 5 minutes before inverting it onto a rack. Remove the pan then turn the cake right side up to cool before slicing. Store at room temperature, covered with wax paper for a day or two or wrap in plastic to keep for a few more days.

Boozy Cake Soak

Page 919

Since I wanted to try and recreate my sister-in-law’s rum pecan cake I was simply going to pour over some Meyer’s Rum and take my chances, but Bittman was one step ahead of me with a cake soak recipe! I decided to stick with the expert on this because the cake came out so well and smelled so good!

1/2 Cup cream

1/4 Cup sugar

Pinch sea salt

1/2 Cup Meyer’s dark rum, bourbon or any compatible liquor

2 Tbs butter

1 Tbs vanilla extract

Put cream, sugar, salt and butter into a small pot. Cook over low heat, whisking often until the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil the mixture. Add in the vanilla extract, remove from heat and then whisk in the alcohol (if you wish to, you cook off the alcohol by adding it when heating the cream mixture, but do not boil it).

If using a cake soak, simply leave the cake in the cooking pan and allow it to cool. Pour the soak over the cooled cake and allow it to sit for at least an hour before slicing. The longer it sits, covered with waxed paper or wrapped in plastic, the richer it becomes.

While I liked this version, and I was glad I tried it, I love my sister-in-law’s better and I think that has to do with all the lovely memories I have of getting my package in the mail come Christmas time and anticipating the delicious love she puts into it. I would recommend this version to anyone who doesn’t have a sister-in-law to bake you her own special pecan rum cake of course! I think the regular pound cake would have been delicious with some lemon curd over it or a dollop of creme fraiche and I will certainly try making it that way one day soon! Happy Holidays all!

Remember, I highly recommend How to Cook Everything By Mark Bittman for ease of use and variety. Even the most traditional cook will get some amazing ideas from it. You can view more information on all Mark Bittman’s terrific cook books at my Stuff I Like on Amazon store, or by clicking the Amazon Banner at the bottom of this page. You can also find great information and more recipes from Mark at his website Mark Bittman, and of course, the New York Times.

Please stop by the first Thursday of every month and join the Tackling Bittman and His Buddies Recipe Hop. This hop is open all month long and you can link up any recipe you made from a cook book. You can also link up more than once, so get to cooking and trying new cookbooks! I just got Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for my birthday and you KNOW I am going to have to try out some of those amazing recipes. I was so thrilled I jumped up and down! My girls are awesome and they sure know what mommy wants!

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