Just made Avocado Pound Cake from Joy the Baker's new cookbook. It was a beautiful pale green and lighter than usual because it used less butter. Would never use margarine, unhealthy and tastes bad.
Vegans or the lactose-intolerant might consider margarine (though in either case, it's wise to read the label, since some margarines contain milk products). However, otherwise, butter is better.
I would never use margarine in any cake. Or anything else for that matter. Especially in pound cake where the butter flavor is key to the success of the cake, the real thing is essential.
Stick with butter for pound cake. I like lemon pound cakes and it is the season for that. I tend to go for trusted sources and bakers, like:
Nick Malgieri, click recipes, click cakes, Lemon pound cake, if you don't have a bundt pan, use 2 loaf pans
http://www.nickmalgieri.com/
Or Rose Levy Beranbaum lemon poppyseed cake, extremely good and tender, made this many times:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Poppy-Seed-Pound-Cake-105981
Lemon Loaf Cake from Baking with Julia, so so easy, made this many times!
http://nestleusa.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/homage-to-julia-child-lemon-loaf-cake-with-grilled-peaches/
And here is a simple vanilla one from the very trusted Baking With Julia book:
http://www.themesspot.com/2009/09/vanilla-pound-cake.html
I think the best pound cake recipe is Ming Tsai's (Simply Ming) of Boston's Blue Ginger restaurant. It's a little untraditional with the ginger and brown sugar, but it's to die for. I'm pasting it in here:
Ginger-Brown Sugar Pound Cake
Makes 2 Loaves
1lb unsalted butter
1lb dark brown sugar
1lb eggs (9-10 large eggs)
1lb all purpose flour
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon ground ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
cooking spray with flour, for greasing pans
Whipped cream, for serving
Preheat oven to 350 degrees convection.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter. Add sugar and continue to cream together until light and fluffy. With mixer still going, add 1 egg at a time.
In a bowl, combine flour, ginger and kosher salt. Sprinkle in flour mixture while beating and mix until just incorporated. Spoon into greased loaf pans.
Bake in center of oven for 55-60 minutes. Cake will be done when deep golden brown and skewer comes out clean when inserted into center of cake.
Allow to cool on wire rack, run knife around edge and release from pan. Serve slices with whipped cream. Second loaf can be stored, wrapped tightly, in freezer, for 2-4 weeks.
Butter is traditional. Pound cakes have been around for hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years before marg came along, and quite frankly, the only good reason to use margarine I can imagine is when cooking vegan. (but that last bit is my opinion, others differ)
Butter, real butter from pastured, grass fed cows, adds a silky soft texture and the most amazing depth of flavour. Go for unsalted butter if you can, that way you can control the finished seasoning better.
9 Comments
Nick Malgieri, click recipes, click cakes, Lemon pound cake, if you don't have a bundt pan, use 2 loaf pans
http://www.nickmalgieri.com/
Or Rose Levy Beranbaum lemon poppyseed cake, extremely good and tender, made this many times:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Poppy-Seed-Pound-Cake-105981
Lemon Loaf Cake from Baking with Julia, so so easy, made this many times!
http://nestleusa.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/homage-to-julia-child-lemon-loaf-cake-with-grilled-peaches/
And here is a simple vanilla one from the very trusted Baking With Julia book:
http://www.themesspot.com/2009/09/vanilla-pound-cake.html
Ginger-Brown Sugar Pound Cake
Makes 2 Loaves
1lb unsalted butter
1lb dark brown sugar
1lb eggs (9-10 large eggs)
1lb all purpose flour
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon ground ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
cooking spray with flour, for greasing pans
Whipped cream, for serving
Preheat oven to 350 degrees convection.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter. Add sugar and continue to cream together until light and fluffy. With mixer still going, add 1 egg at a time.
In a bowl, combine flour, ginger and kosher salt. Sprinkle in flour mixture while beating and mix until just incorporated. Spoon into greased loaf pans.
Bake in center of oven for 55-60 minutes. Cake will be done when deep golden brown and skewer comes out clean when inserted into center of cake.
Allow to cool on wire rack, run knife around edge and release from pan. Serve slices with whipped cream. Second loaf can be stored, wrapped tightly, in freezer, for 2-4 weeks.
Butter, real butter from pastured, grass fed cows, adds a silky soft texture and the most amazing depth of flavour. Go for unsalted butter if you can, that way you can control the finished seasoning better.