French Pound Cake
This wonderful foundation cake is from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II, where it is called Le Quatre Quarts. Translated to Four Quarters, as the original recipe called for a quarter pound of each ingredient. The unique method for this cake calls for incorporating very soft butter, the consistency of mayonnaise, into the cake batter.
French Pound Cake
| Yield: One 7-inch cake | # of Servings: 12 | Difficulty: Moderate |
Ingredients:
12 tbl (6 oz / 170 g) unsalted butter, soft
Grated orange rind from 1 orange
1 ¼ cup (5.5 oz / 156 g) cake flour, sifted
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup less 1 tbl (6 oz / 170 g) sugar
1 pinch of sea salt
Special tools and equipment:
- 7” by 2” cake pan
- 7” parchment paper circle
- Stand mixer with whip attachment, or handheld mixer
- Small saucepan for a double boiler
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Butter the pan, line with parchment circle, butter entire surface. Almond flour
- Preheat oven to 350°F
Directions
- Beat butter until soft over a double boiler. It should be texture of thick mayo. Stir in orange rind and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl with a wire whip, beat eggs, sugar at low speed to mix. Increase speed to high and beat for approximately 4 to 5 minutes, until pale, fluffy, doubled in volume.
- Sift in flour, and fold into the eggs, not looking for perfect blend at this point.
- Fold in soft butter in two stages.
- Bake until lightly browned and firm to the touch, approximately 42 to 44 minutes.
- Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, cover pan with a cardboard circle or cooling rack. Place another cooling rack on the bottom of the cake and flip so the cake cools right side up.