white chocolate-pumpkin pound cake

The winner of the Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented is Liz of Little Bitty Bakes. Congrats Liz, this is a stellar cookbook!! I wish I had more to give away, I really do. I had so many comments, and I could tell you all wanted to win this. Let's do more giveaways....I will make this happen. Promise.
As for this pound cake, well it's interesting.

As I've stated before I am not a huge pumpkin fan. So if you like the taste of pumpkin this maybe be the loaf for you--it's very pumpkin-ey if that's a word. The white chocolate middle is very delicate, not overly sweet at all; overall loaf is very mild, hence the reason I put the nutella-cream cheese frosting on there. Lately I've been really drawn to nutella.....have you seen those super sized jars of it they sell in the grocery stores? I got one! Seriously. What have you baked with Nutella? Possibilities are endless aren't they? Sorry the photo isn't that bright...we've had nothing but rain and dark gloomy days here on cape cod.

white chocolate-pumpkin pound cake
by dawn finicane
print recipe

3 large eggs and 2 egg yolks, room temp
2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup high quality white chocolate (like Valrhona)
1 stick of salted butter, melted
¾ cup white sugar
1 huge pinch of sea salt
A couple dashes of cinnamon
½ can of pumpkin puree (pure pumpkin not flavored)
2 TB canola oil
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil or butter and dust with flour a rectangular pound cake pan.
Melt the butter, let it cool slightly.
In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; then sift and set aside.
Mix the sugar, canola oil and eggs with stand mixer until well combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in batches (of three) until just combined. Don’t over mix.
Separate the batter in 2/3 and 1/3. We are going to add the pumpkin puree to the 2/3 batter by just folding it in; we don’t want to over mix at this point.

Place the white chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water and let simmer until the chocolate is melted. Add this melted chocolate to the 1/3 batter. You have to work quickly as the white chocolate does not stay melted for long.
Pour half the pumpkin batter into the pan, then pour in the white chocolate batter making sure to keep this batter in the middle, not to let it go to the sides so the nice swirl stays even in the middle. Recipe by dawn Finicane of vanillakitchen.blogspot.com Pour the remaining pumpkin batter on the top. You may have to use your fingers to push the batter down, as the batter is quite thick.
Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (mine was done at the 40 minute mark). Remove from the oven. Let cool before frosting.
If you wish to frost this (some say it was good without the frosting) all I did was add a block of 8 ounces of room temp cream cheese to about ½ (or more) of Nutella. Mix really well and frost.

pineapple & bacon pound cake

Yes, I know a lot of us are on diets, myself included. I've been doing the "clean eat" semi-diet for a while now. So I did not really eat this, only a small sample to make sure it came out great. And yes it truly came out decadent, divine, heavenly, pineappley & baconley. I have wanted for some time now to make something with pineapple and bacon. I mean they go so well together on a pizza (if done right), so I wanted to try it else where. I came up with the idea of putting pineapple and bacon in a butter rich pound cake. Why not? Let's just kick that fattening pound cake up a few more fattening notches shall we? Allllrighty then!

pineapple & bacon poundcake
print recipe

3 – 4 pieces of bacon, cooked crisp
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained, divided (might need a bit more, so have a small can of crushed pineapple set aside in case you need it)
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temp.
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 ts baking powder
¼ cup half & half
1 ts pure vanilla extract

Cook about 3 – 4 slices of bacon till just about crisp. Drain on paper towels, set aside.
Take a few pieces of pineapple and chop up about 2 ts (or more) for the glaze, set aside in fridge to keep cool.
Put 3/4 cup or so, of undrained pineapple with its juice in a small bowl; set aside.
Drain remaining pineapple and measure 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple; set aside.
Cream shortening, butter, and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Sift flour and baking powder together; add to creamed mixture, 1 large scoopful at a time, alternating with half & half. Now stirring by hand, add vanilla; then fold in 3/4 cup undrained pineapple with juice and blend well.
Pour batter into a well greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Place in cold oven.
Turn oven to 325° and bake for 1 ½ hours, or until top springs back when touched lightly with finger.
Let pineapple pound cake stand for few minutes in pan. Run knife around edges to loosen and remove pineapple cake carefully to a rack.

Pineapple & Bacon Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons reserved pineapple syrup
About 2 ts of minced pineapple (or more if you like it, I did)
3-4 ts +/- of cooked bacon, finely chopped.

Mix the sugar and pineapple syrup until desired consistency (I like mine fairly thick), then add in minced pineapple and bacon, pour over pound cake.

vanilla poundcake w/ creamsicle frosting

Creamsicle.
Remember that flavor as a kid? I can't tell you how many creamsicles I ate as a kid. That creamy flavor combo of orange and milk. I remember biting into the first creamsicle of the summer season with the hard orange crust that would break with just enough force to open up the creamy middle milky center.
Lately I've been craving a creamsicle type frosting. Since I could just make the frosting and eat it on it's own...but no, I'll make a cake to go with.
I realize poundcake doesn't always come to mind when you think of frosting something new, but I have wanted to dress up a poundcake, so here is the perfect opportunity.

 I started my search for frostings or glazes of the creamsicle variety, but most of them were just butter, milk and some orange zest. Not very creamsicle-like. So, I set out to try and find my own recipe that would hit the creamsicle flavor mark right on the head. After a few experiments I finally found one I liked and it closely resembled that of a creamsicle. I would also love to try this frosting on a carrot cake; for some reason I just think it would be awesome melding all those flavors together.
Of course you don't have to put this frosting on poundcake, any vanilla cake or cupcake will do.




vanilla pound cake w/ creamsicle frosting
pound cake recipe from America's Test Kitchen
print recipe

pound cake:
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), cold, plus extra for greasing pan
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract + some vanilla beans about 1 ts (optional)
1¾ cups cake flour (7 ounces), plus extra for dusting pan
½ teaspoon table salt
1¼ cups sugar (8 3/4 ounces)

Cut butter into 1-tablespoon pieces and place in bowl of standing mixer; let stand at room temperature 20 to 30 minutes to soften slightly (butter should reach no more than 60 degrees). Using dinner fork, beat eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla in liquid measuring cup until combined. Let egg mixture stand at room temperature until ready to use.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Generously butter 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust pan liberally with flour and knock out excess.
In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, beat butter and salt at medium-high speed until shiny, smooth, and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula.
Reduce speed to medium; with mixer running, gradually pour in sugar (this should take about 60 seconds). Once all sugar is added, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white in color, 5 to 8 minutes, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once.
With mixer running at medium speed, gradually add egg mixture in slow, steady stream; this should take 60 to 90 seconds. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl; beat mixture at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes (mixture may look slightly broken). Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides.
In 3 additions, sift flour over butter/egg mixture; after each addition, fold gently with rubber spatula until combined. Scrape along bottom of bowl to ensure that batter is consistent.
Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until golden brown and wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 70 to 80 minutes. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes; invert cake onto wire rack, then turn cake right side up. Cool cake on rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.

creamsicle frosting
(this frosting was created off the top of my head, so I might be off a bit on measurements, but taste it as you go along to find your own desired taste)

1 stick+ unsalted butter, room temp (might need 1-2 TB more)
2+ cups confectioners sugar (might need 1-2 TB more)
4 TB cream cheese, softened
Pinch or two of sea salt
1-3 dashes of half & half (or milk)
2 ts of orange zest, plus more for garnish (if desired)
1 or 2 TB of the juice from same orange

Mix all ingredients into large bowl and using an electric mixer beat until a nice creamy frosting is achieved. If you like a thicker frosting use less of the half & half, for thinner frosting add more half & half. Frost cooled pound cake, decorate with orange zest as a garnish, slice and serve.