Pound cake is so called because traditionally it was made with a pound of each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. This version uses panela sugar in place of some of the more traditional white sugar, adding a caramel flavour and a crunchy sugar crust. It's best eaten on the day it's made.
Sugar-crusted vanilla pound cake
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for sugar-crusted vanilla pound cake.
- 30 mins preparation
- 1 hr cooking plus cooling, standing
- Serves 8
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Ingredients
- 250 gm softened butter
- 125 gm each caster sugar and panela sugar (see note)
- Finely grated rind of 1 mandarin and 1 lemon (juices reserved for sugar crust)
- Scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 250 gm (1 2/3 cup) plain flour, sieved
- 2 tsp baking powder
Sugar crust
- Juice of 1 mandarin and 1 lemon
- 60 gm panela sugar
- 40 gm caster sugar
Crushed strawberry cream
- 80 gm strawberries, coarsely chopped
- 2 tsp panela sugar
- 400 gm crème fraîche
Method
Main
- 1Preheat oven to 170C. Beat butter, sugars, rinds and vanilla in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy (5-6 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in flour and baking powder. Spoon into an 8.5cm x 22cm loaf tin buttered and lined with baking paper, smooth top. Bake until golden and cooked through (45 minutes-1 hour), cool in tin for 5 minutes then turn onto a wire rack.
- 2For sugar crust, combine juices and sugars in a bowl and stir until dissolved, then spoon over warm cake. Stand until cooled to room temperature.
- 3For crushed strawberry cream, combine strawberries and sugar in a bowl, coarsely crush strawberries and stand until juices leach from strawberries (4-5 minutes). Whisk crème fraîche in a separate bowl until thick and smooth, fold in strawberry mixture and serve with sugar-crusted vanilla pound cake.
Notes
Note Panela sugar is produced mainly in Colombia, where it's usually sold in block form; in Australia, it's more often seen as a granulated product.
Drink Suggestion: A pot of good old English breakfast tea. Drink suggestion by Max Allen