SATURDAY BAKING

smitten.

Well, not just any Saturday morning baking, vanilla pound cake to be exact.  I originally saw this recipe on Martha Stewart's site while I was perusing the Christmas cookie recipe section.  Every year I tell myself I am going to bake 12 varieties of wondrous Christmas cookie confections and box them all up with coordinating tissue, baker's twine and a dusting of sugar and drop them off at everyone's home that I have ever met so they can ooo and awe over my skills.

So this is what I was doing, while calculating the cost (which always derails the project. every single year) and I saw the recipe for vanilla pound cake. The one thing Martha was lacking in her version was the use of a real vanilla bean.  Deb, over at smittenkitchen.com describes her experience with real vanilla vs. imitation like this,

"The truth is, I bought my very first vanilla bean only last week when I was making rice pudding. It’s not that I didn’t know how fantastic they are in all of their clarity of flavor and little-goes-a-long way charm, I was just both too cheap to buy them, and too afraid to go down that slippery slope whereby no extract would do ever satisfy me again. I finally justified the expense by rationalizing that rice pudding is such an insanely inexpensive dessert, even half — half! — of a five-dollar bean wasn’t that big of a deal. And I’d reuse it until it was tapped out, next time in something that didn’t require as strong of a flavor and then pulsing it in the food processor with sugar for the best sweetener in the world. Isn’t it incredible the way we fuss over a twice-reusable $2.50 expense that can carry over to a dozen or more dessert portions, but rarely note the difference between a 10 or 13 dollar pasta dish on a restaurant menu? (Oh wait, someone wrote a book on this.)

This hasn’t kept me from feeling despicably posh in the week since as my worst fears were quickly confirmed: nothing else will ever do, ever. Fine, brownies don’t need freshly-scraped vanilla speckles, and maybe not banana bread either. Apple pie can do without and, yes, butter cream frosting as well. But custards, creams, puddings and, for certain, white cakes just hit the big time because, sweet mercy, fresh vanilla is a flavor more profound than chocolate. More profound. Than chocolate. Hold me."

She is right. So, so right.  So right in fact that I am considering baking and bundling up these guys for my Christmas gift to the masses.  Sometimes Michael's even sells $1 mini baking dishes in Christmas colors.  So, that is my plan right now because these babies are decadent. And of course, because I am never actually satisfied with something simple and easy I am also toying with the idea of creating a complimentary vanilla bean frosting that I can put in a cute baby jar with a little wooden spoon attached. I can't stop myself. 

Vanilla Bean Pound Cake
1 pound (2 cups) sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, used is fine
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 pound (9 large) eggs
1 pound (4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. In a food processor, grind vanilla bean and sugar until vanilla is as finely chopped as it can get, about one minute. Sift this mixture twice, making sure all larger pieces have been filtered out. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer, then gradually add the vanilla sugar, continuing to beat until well creamed and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add the flour and salt, beating constantly. Add the vanilla extract and continue beating until well blended.

3. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or bundt pan. Pour in the batter and ”spank” the bottom of the pan to distribute the batter evenly. Bake until a straw inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes, taking care not to overcook. Turn cake out onto a rack and let cool.

Fluffy Vanilla Bean Frosting

1 cup salted butter, at room temperature

seeds from two small vanilla beans

4 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Whip butter and vanilla bean seeds until pale and fluffy (about 4 minutes).

2. Add powdered sugar, milk and extract and blend two more minutes. Don't overbeat and lose the fluffiness!

You can also listen to this awesome song while you are baking :) 

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