Eating Our Way Through A Homemade Life and a Recipe for Berry Pound Cake

You know how I feel about Molly from Orangette.  I have written about her at least 3 times that I can recall.  Here, here and here.  I sound like a crazy stalker, but I assure you, I'm not.  (Trust me, I've had crazy stalkers and I am totally not one of them) I just really like her writing, her recipes and I am very inspired by her.  Maybe I have a little blog crush.

Moving on.

It is no surprise then that I entered Molly's book, A Homemade Life, into the mix for my book club's next read. 

I was so happy when it got picked.  I was even more happy when everyone agreed to make a recipe from the book and we'd all feast at our next meeting.  

And feast we did.  It was, perhaps, one of my most favorite book clubs ever.

Here's what we made: 

Burg's Potato Salad (pg 14)   So good.  And there is only 1 other potato salad in the world that I like.  My mother in law makes amazing potato salad.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes With Coriander (pg 192)  Delicious.  Especially with Cassie's home grown tomatoes.  She's our farmer.

Espresso Walnut Toffee (pg 82)  The espresso makes this sooo good. 

Scottish Scones with Lemon and Ginger (pg 174) Couldn't even get to these last night.  So I had mine for breakfast and it was perfect.

Jimmy's Pink Cookies (132) You can taste the butter.  Need I say more?

Hoosier Pie (pg 55)  I am not a fan of pecan pie.  But this pie has chocolate in it and that makes it a totally different kind of pecan pie experience.  Yum.

And my contribution: Blueberry Raspberry Pound Cake (pg 20)  Everyone should have a pound cake recipe in their back pocket.  This is mine.

Seriously, this is good pound cake.  You know a cake is going to be good when the batter is good.  This one is beautiful.  Thick and golden from all the butter and eggs; it tastes divine.  I risked salmonella to try several spoonfuls.  Then, when you add in the berries, there are all these lovely swirls of pink and blue.  It's pretty.  And cake should be pretty.

Here are the details about the cake:

I used blackberries instead of blueberries because William loves blackberries and he begged for them.  Also, we had beautiful blackberries in our backyard this summer and I envision making lots of this cake with those berries next summer.

I sprinkled the top with a bit of sugar because it sounded good to me.  It was.

I served it with freshly whipped cream because it sounded good to me.  It was.

I made it in 2 loaf pans because my bundt pan has mysteriously gone missing.  How?

I think the loaf pans are a good idea because I made 2 cakes instead of 1.  In the future I will put one cake in the freezer.  Because who doesn't want to have a berry pound cake in the freezer at the ready for any pound cakeish occasion?  That's what I thought.  

Here's the recipe.

Blueberry (or Blackberry) Raspberry Pound Cake

2 cups plus 8 tablespoons cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

1 2/3 cup sugar

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature

2 tablespoons kirsch (if using blackberries, omit kirsch and substitute 1 teaspoon each grated lemon and orange zest) 

1 cup blueberries (or blackberries) rinsed and dried well

1 cup raspberries rinsed and dried well

Preheat oven to 300.

Butter and flour a 9 cup bundt pan, or 2 loaf pans.

Whisk together 2 cups plus 6 tablespoons flour, baking powder and salt

In food processor, blend eggs and sugar until thick, about 1 minute

Add butter and kirsch and blend until fluffy, about 1 minute

Add dry ingredients and process until just combined.  Do not overmix.

Batter will be very thick and smooth.

In a large bowl, toss berries with remaining flour.

Pour batter over berries and using a rubber spatula, gently fold to combine.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly across the top.

*This is when I sprinkled the top with sugar.

Bake until toothpick inserted in top comes out clean about 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Transfer to rack and cool in pan for 5 minutes. Carefully invert cake onto rack and wait at least 20 minutes before slicing.

Serve warm, at room temperature or with whipped cream and berries on the side.

There are so many good recipes in this book.  I hope you'll be inspired to try the pound cake.  It would be a nice treat for the weekend.  Say, Saturday afternoon, or Sunday morning breakfast?   

Go get Molly's book.  You won't be sorry.

Happy baking, eating and reading.  Those are 3 of my favorite things to do!

Love from,

Greta