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A Taste of Yellow - Pound Cake to live strong by

poundcake and berries

I am a avid fan of Lance Armstrong. I admire his athletic ability, his battle against cancer, and his willingness to put it all together for the greater good. When Lance was competing in the Tour de France I watched every day. I knew all the contenders, I studied and researched to understand the strategic nuances of the sport (le peloton!), and at the end of the race I was there with my champagne, toasting another Lance victory. Since Lance retired I’ve continue to follow his career, pleased that he hasn’t lost his ability to inspire people to give more, do more, and live strong. So when Barbara at Winos and Foodies came up with the Taste of Yellow event to support Livestrong Day I knew that I’d find something yellow to contribute.

LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s (LAF) grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. LIVESTRONG Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, May 16.

We all know that I much prefer pie over cake. However, I wasn’t about to attempt a lemon or banana cream pie because I’ve done so in the past (pre-blog) and my banana cream pie attempt still lives vividly in all our minds…no it wasn’t pretty, and yes it did finally prove that even if all your ingredients are top notch it is possible to make them inedible when you cook them. I decided to make a pound cake. I’ve actually been craving it and with the beautiful eggs I’ve been getting from Dreamfarm I knew it would be yellow. However, I’ve never made a pound cake. Plus, I’m easily confused these days due to a severe case of anemia (really, you need those big fat red blood cells to carry the oxygen to the brain…right now I don’t have enough!). So I spent time going through my books and browsing online. Because I so respect the cakes that Brilynn makes I thought that her high opinion of Dorie Greenspan was endorsement enough and so I went with the pound cake recipe in Baking With Julia by Julia Child and Dorie Greenspan.

Since I’m not operating at full capacity I decided to actually follow the recipe…something I rarely do. So I measure and weighed my ingredients and set them out on the counter to come to room temperature. I prepared my ring cake pan by buttering and flouring it and I preheated my oven to 350 degrees.

I began by whipping the butter in my mixer with the paddle attachment. I slowly added the sugar and let it mix on medium for almost four minutes. Then I added the eggs (one egg had two yolks…whooohooo a bonus egg!), slowly streaming a 1/4 cup of them in as the mixer worked on medium. That mixture was really bright yellow and increased in volume quite a bit. Then I alternated adding the flour mixture and the milk. Once that was mixed smooth I added the vanilla and that was it.

I loaded the cake pan with the batter, smoothed the top, and put it in the oven to bake. It baked for 46 minutes in my convection oven but I should have taken it out 3 minutes earlier. At 41 minutes the skewer came out with some cake batter on it. But at 46 minutes it seems a bit dry. It cooled it for 10 minutes then I removed it from the pan, and spent the next 30 minutes insisting that everyone stay away from it while it finished cooling…imagine two young men dancing about saying “Is it cake yet? “Is it cake yet?” over and over until I gave in and said “YES!”.

Pound Cake

Yes it is as delicious as it looks, thank you. No it wasn’t hard, really very simple. Yes, I’ll make it again because it goes so well with our homemade greek yogurt and mixed berries…sorta healthy but actually decadent, and oh…so very fresh. Click below for the actual recipe.

If your pockets aren’t as empty as this plate then please consider making a donation to Livestrong.

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May 3, 2007 | Filed Under Local, baking, blog event, cookbook, eggs, cheese, dairy, food, recipe, sweets 

comments

4 Responses to “A Taste of Yellow - Pound Cake to live strong by”

  1. barbara on May 3rd, 2007

    Thank you for your entry Vanessa. I’m now a fan of the Tour de France although I never watched it before my cancer. The cake looks delicious.

  2. almost vegetarian on May 3rd, 2007

    That is just beautiful - and I’m saying this not only because you have blackberries and raspberries on your cake (and I am on a huge berry kick these days), but because the colors are so splendid.

    Cheers!

  3. Jacob on May 4th, 2007

    Another option…ride your Livestrong pride on a Trek 7.5 FX Livestrong Edition bicycle. http://trekstoremadison.com/itemdetails.cfm?catalogId=39&id=2195 “$25 of the purchase price goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research.”

  4. vanessa on May 7th, 2007

    Barbara, thanks for visiting and hosting this worthy event.

    Almost veg, thank you so much.

    Jacob, I wouldn’t last an hour on that bike. I like comfort…like this one:
    http://www2.trekbikes.com/bikes/bike.php?bikeid=1389001&f=31

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