| Food Blog by Arie
Five-Flavor Pound Cake….This is nearly magical about how each Five Flavor Pound Cake makes your kitchen smell so good and homey, like you just entered the kitchen of your grandmother on a Sunday afternoon. This is not merely a cake of pleasantness; it is multiple levels of taste in a perfect concert. The five basic extracts that are used to create the magic are vanilla, almond, lemon, coconut, and rum. All of them introduce their personal character to the party.
Vanilla brings in the warmth and depth, almond gives it the bakery-fresh richness, lemon adds a bit of brightness to it, coconut adds a bit of tropical sweetness, and rum gives it all the cozy, nostalgic flavor that makes you close your eyes after the first bite. This pound cake is not modesty-stricken, as a traditional pound cake would be. It is daring, luscious, and full of charisma. With each bite, you have a different flavor in which to fall in love.
The combination of all these five extracts makes a classic recipe something that cannot be forgotten. You can make it when you are hosting a family dinner, have a holiday dinner, or simply because you need to have something extraordinary with your morning coffee, this Five Flavor Pound Cake will not fail you. It is that sort of dessert that leaves one wondering, what is that taste? — and the fact is that it is the magic of the five of them working together. Check out my recent recipe of brown butter spice cupcakes.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time: ~1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 10–12
For the Cake:
For the Glaze:
The ideal pound cake lies entirely in the texture, in a soft, melt-in-your-mouth crumb that is buttery and rich without ever being dry. The secret? It is not merely the ingredients it is the method of bringing them together.It must be room temperature butter and eggs, no other way.Your butter and shortening should be soft (not melted) when you beat them with sugar, so that they trap the air.The air that is trapped in the oven is expanded and it makes your cake light and fluffy.
That can not happen with cold ingredients, and you will have a thick loaf.It is equally crucial in the mixing method.After putting your milk and flour, beat your batter on high speed (3 to 4 minutes) as well.This is the step that is usually overlooked and that is what makes the cake have the characteristic tender crumb.The additional whip time also refines the batter, destroys any form of graininess and makes sure that the flour is completely moist.
And here too is another silent secret, which is the mixture of butter and shortening. Butter provides the flavor and richness and shortening provides the structure and moisture that can last even a couple of days. It’s the best of both worlds. That was the reason you took all those cautious measures, when you have that first bite and the cake will just slop down your tongue.This is the type of texture that makes people go back again and again, and probably even the following morning in breakfast. I am going to make this dessert next.
When the cake is a soul of this recipe, the glaze is the soul. This syrup is glossy and golden and makes each bite alive and connects all five flavors most deliciously. It is sweet and smelled good and a little sticky– that glaze that gets into every crevice of your pound cake, and that makes you cannot rest at a single slice. What is so beautiful about this glaze is that it is so simple: it is sugar, water, and the same five flavorings vanilla, almond, lemon, coconut and rum.
You gently boil it, or boil it no more than three or four minutes, only till it has thickened and is slightly shiny. During the cooling process the flavors become rich and expanded to form an ideal balance syrup, bright and deep. Your moment to come is when your cake is out of the oven and is warm and golden, then that is when you grab a spoon or pour right out of the pan and allow the glaze to flow over the top.
You will hear the little sizzling noise as it fades into the cracks and coats the crust and puts flavor into the inside. And here is a little secret; the glaze is not only on pound cake. It is amazing when drizzled on pancakes, warm biscuits, muffins or even vanilla ice cream. It tastes good once you have tried it and you will be having reasons to apply it everywhere.
After your Five Flavor Pound Cake is cooled and the glaze is dried, it is now ready to shine its light. This cake does not require much outward appearance, it is a classic booth among desserts which is beautiful in its simplicity. One slice of bread, a fork and perhaps a moment to yourself is all you want sometimes. To be a little more luxurious, each slice may be lightly warmed with a portion of whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream, or some fresh berries on the side.
Strawberries or raspberries are so tart and the cake is so buttery and sweet, with that sweet glaze made of five flavors. When you are serving a large number of people, you can attempt to cut it into smaller squares or slices and place it on a dessert table. People will flock over the smell of it alone the combination of vanilla, lemon, almond, coconut, and rum smells almost like perfume in the air. In order to store leftovers (in case they exist!), put the cake in the plastic wrap or airtight container. It remains well moist at room temperature up to 4-5 days.