Ina Garten’s “Perfect” Pound Cake Lives Up to Its Name (I’m Completely Smitten)

A couple of months again, I used to be watching a present on HGTV the place a lady baked a pound cake by beginning it in a chilly oven. I didn’t assume a lot of it till I noticed that Ina Garten follows the identical apply in her perfect pound cake recipe. After doing slightly digging, I discovered that slowly cooking the pound cake fairly than stunning it with excessive warmth is meant to end in a extra delicate pound cake with a young crumb.

Naturally, I used to be curious. Would this new-to-me approach really end in higher pound cake? Right here’s what I discovered once I examined it. 

Get the recipe: Ina Garten’s Perfect Pound Cake

Earlier than you start, disregard your intuition to preheat the oven — you need to hold it chilly. Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt pan or two loaf pans and sprinkle the insides with turbinado sugar. 

Sift the cake flour and salt by way of a sieve thrice. Cream the butter and sugar within the bowl of a stand mixer till gentle and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, scraping down the bowl after every addition. Add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and orange zest and blend to mix. Alternate including the flour combination and heavy cream in thirds till absolutely mixed. Add every extract one by one, scraping down the edges of the bowl after every addition.

Switch the batter to the ready pan and clean in a fair layer. Place within the oven, then flip the warmth on to 350˚F. Bake till a toothpick comes out clear and the highest is golden-brown. Let the cake cool within the pan for half-hour, then switch to a wire rack to chill fully. 

This recipe took me on a curler coaster of feelings, form of like a nasty ex-boyfriend you retain going again to. Whereas I used to be assembling the truffles (I opted for the 2 loaf pans), I felt like I used to be on high of the world. All the pieces went precisely to plan, and once I tried the batter — perfumed with actual vanilla bean and orange zest — I used to be fully smitten.

However throughout the baking course of, issues took a flip. Ina calls so that you can pull the cake out at 55 minutes, however once I checked the consistency of my truffles with a toothpick, they had been nonetheless soupy. After 20 extra minutes the truffles appeared like they had been simply baked by way of with deeply golden crusts, so I pulled them out of the oven. At this level I had extraordinarily low expectations for the way good this pound cake may very well be.

When it was lastly time to slice into the cake, I used to be shortly confirmed improper. This pound cake has an exceptionally tender, moist crumb, with an unimaginable crackly crust, because of the turbinado sugar that strains the pan. The flavour was spot-on, too, with simply the correct quantity of sweetness. Now that I do know to bake it longer than instructed, I might completely make this pound cake once more. 

Have you ever tried Ina Garten’s pound cake recipe? Inform us what you thought within the feedback!