White Spice Pound Cake | The Novice Housewife

This is the picture that went with the original post which was published within a few months of my first blog post ever. The first photo in this post is a photo of the same cake I shot almost 5 years later.

Generally a lot of recipes call for just egg yolks, and, as a result, you are left with too many egg whites on your hand. Scrambled eggs, egg white omelet, macaroons, meringues can be useful ways to use those left-over egg whites. Or, if you are the beauty-savvy kinds, you can use the egg whites as a rinse for your hair (you’ll smell of egg after that- but it conditions your hair like anything). High in protein and negligible in fat, its a good way to enjoy the benefits of egg and not add to the cholesterol levels in your body.

I had made custard the other day, and was left with the dilemma of how to use the left-over whites. I decided to make the White Spice Pound Cake from Rose Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible. The cake is soft and velvety and even though there are no egg yolks, the addition of cinnamon, cloves and brandy gives it a really rich flavor. I added nutmeg too, though the original recipe doesn’t ask for it.

One technique I have recently adopted while baking cakes, is to always spoon out the flour into the measuring cup instead of scooping the flour directly into the measuring cup. The best way to measure flour, of course, is by weighing, but since I don’t own a scale, I have read spooning it out into the measuring cup gives a more accurate measurement. It also aerates the flour, resulting in a light, moist cake.

white spice pound cake

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V and I are both down with stomach cramps, me more than him. Thankfully, I can say that it is not because of my cooking. Its a result of eating out (even though at other people’s houses) every day over the weekend. Some thing just did not sit right with both of us. So for lunch today I made khichdi, a light Indian dish made of rice and lentil. Its easy to put together and to digest as well. Have it with curd and a little ghee, and you have comfort food at its best.

Talking about comfort food. It’s been raining here like crazy. And what’s more comforting than hot coffee- well, actually there is- cake soaked in espresso topped with coffee infused mascarpone cheese. Ahh! Tiramisu! Yes, I know- given my condition, I can not afford to have such a delicatessen! So, instead I chose to relive the memory of the time I did make a Tiramisu cake- the weekend we had our first house guests.

Dorie Greenspan yet again came to my rescue with this awesome recipe for a Tiramisu cake. I was glad to find a recipe that did not call for store bought lady fingers. I did end up making a lot of blunders. I forgot to read the instructions properly and instead of mixing all of the whipped cream for the filling, I mixed in only 1/4 th. I also had to double the amounts of the syrup, as the stated amount was just not sufficient for soaking both the cakes. I used ricotta cheese as I could not find mascarpone cheese anywhere:(! But, besides the filling being a little gritty, the taste wasn’t amiss. Also, I almost ended up burning one of the cakes as it baked in less than half the time mentioned in the book. But, fortunately, I checked and took the cake out. The cake in the other pan took the mentioned amount of time to bake. And, even though I bought Kahlua, the store clerk forgot to remove the alarm and I had to do with brandy! Just one of those days!

In spite of all the mishaps though, I got rave reviews for the cake. The coffee flavour was right on target- the frosting and filling weren’t too overly sweet- just the right amount of sweetness. I have realised Dorie and my palate for sweetness is quite similar. The cake was moist- thanks to the doubling of the syrup. Everyone loved it!

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It feels so good to be baking again! Recently I got hold of the book, Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters. I had seen an episode with them on the Food Network show Throwdown with Bobby Flay and they were so adorable that I knew I had to get their book.

Recipes that are handed down through generations have their own charm. Every family has their own masterpiece recipe. This blog is an attempt of getting prized recipes from my family and the ones that I find good under one roof and make an heirloom recipe collection of my own, just like the Brass sisters.

So, I set off to try their Banana Bread recipe, with pretty good results. The reason I chose a banana centric recipe was that I had these overly ripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter for some time. And unlike others, who would gross out by just the sight of black skinned bananas, I just exclaim, overjoyed by the opportunity to bake something banana-eyy!:)

The melted butter gives the bread a texture quite close to that of cake. And, for an extra punch, I toast the nuts.

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