Suzi's Blog
Mocha Pound Cake from The Loveless Cafe
Full disclosure: we have not made this cake yet, but we sure are this coming weekend. We have a birthday party where there will be plenty of kids and lots of adults. The kids get a traditional birthday cake with equally high layers of cake and frosting. We will be serving their parents this “adult” pound cake with perhaps an “adult” topping. Oh, say, a Kahlua-based glaze over these mocha babies.
We have already baked using Desserts from the Loveless Café — items coming soon to this blog! — and we know something that you need to: this is one great baking book.
For many of us, too many of us, the neighborhood “bakery” is a nook nestled to the side somewhere inside our supermarket. The cakes there may be, despite that haggard looking frosting, okay. But they are mass produced and there is no sense of “craft” to them.
For bakery greatness, you need — oh, golly gee — a bakery. A real, honest to God bakery. A bakery people talk about, sometimes dream about, and drive to from miles away ‘cause there isn’t anything else like it.
Loveless Café in Nashville is one of those gems. Technically, it’s a regional gem for the lovely recipes here include:
- Root Beer Float Cake
- Sorghum Spice Cake with Lemon Glaze
- Brown Sugar Buttermilk Pound Cake
If you are eating a goodie like one of these at a countertop, then you are probably on the warm side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
There actually are things better than chocolate. Not many, it is true, but some. And mocha is one of them. Cocoa and coffee together have a power that is irresistible. Need to pull an all-nighter? You can do Starbucks until 11PM but they do eventually close. A couple of these cakes should get you through the night.
Easily made, these cakes are just perfect for a party where the “head count” a week away is still just a tad unclear. On Saturday night, Suzi and I will be with our family in Austin, baking away, making sure that the boys do not steal too much batter, and doing what families do best: sharing the kitchen.
Mocha Pound Cake
Yield: three 5-inch loaves serving 2 to 3 persons each
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons freshly ground dark roast coffee beans
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
- ⅔ cup sour cream
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 3 small loaf pans, 5 by 3 by 2 inches. Line the bottoms with parchment paper and grease the paper.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar, coffee, vanilla, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks gradually, beating and scraping the bowl between additions to blend well.
Sift the cake flour and cocoa over the top of the batter. Fold just a few times, then add the sour cream and fold everything together until no streaks remain. Divide the batter evenly among the 3 prepared pans; there will be about 1 1/2 cups batter for each.
Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Let the cakes stand in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes before inverting and removing them from the pans. Peel off the paper and let the cakes cool completely on a rack before slicing.
Source: Desserts from the Loveless Café by Alisa Huntsman
Cornmeal-Lime Cookies from Flour
This blog will be short because Suzen and I are off to a dinner party. Our responsibility: dessert. Our solution: wonderful, wonderful cookies from Flour by Joanne Chang. Joanne has a degree in applied mathematics and string of bakeries in Boston. She’s an most accomplished chef and I’ll write more about her and this fabulous book this week.
These recipes are ideal: they work perfectly.
If you want a great cookie, if you are tired of chocolate, if you want to surprise the mouths your about to feed, then this cookie is for you.
Cornmeal-Lime Cookies
Yield: 1 ½ cups
Ingredients:
For the cookies:
- 1 cup [2 sticks] unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup plus two tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon finely grated lime zees [about 4 limes]
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- ½ cup medium-coarse yellow cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the glaze:
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice [1 to 1 ½ limes]
- 1 ½ teaspoons finely grated lime zest [about 1 lime]
Preparation:
Position a rack in the center of the oven. Heat the oven to 350°F.
Using a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Stop the mixer a few times and use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and the paddle to release any clinging butter or sugar.
Add the lime zest and beat on medium speed for about 1 minute to release the lime flavor. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue to beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until thoroughly combined. Scrape the blow and the paddle again to make sure the eggs are thoroughly incorporated.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and slat. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and them nix until the flour is completely incorporated and the dough is evenly mixed.
Drop the dough in scant ¼ cup balls onto a baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball slight with the palm of your hand.
Baker for about 24 minutes, or until the cookies are pale brown on the edge, still pale in the center, and just firm to the touch in the center. Be careful not to overbake the cookies and let the tops brown. [In Suzi’s oven, we were baked at 17 minutes!]
Let cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 15 to 20 minutes, then transfer to the rack itself to cool to room temperature or just a bit warmer before glazing. [If you try to glaze the cookies while they are still hot, the glaze will run off.]
To make the glaze, while the cookies are cooling, in a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, water, lime juice, and lime zest until smooth. You should have about ½ cup. [The glaze can be made up to 1 week ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.]
Brush the cookies with a thin layer of the glaze, then allow the glaze to set for about 10 minutes before serving or storing.
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days,. The unbaked dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Source: Flour by Joanne Chang
