Vanilla Almond Buttermilk Pound Cakes
Posted: January 14th, 2010 | Filed under: Cake | Tags: almond, buttermilk, buttermilk poundcake, fewer calories pound cake, light, poundcake, Vanilla | 2 Comments »
So now that cake and I are a couple again…
I decided to try out a cake recipe that I flagged over a year ago. Man, I really regret waiting so long. Here is the thing… I like pound cake a lot… and I’ve made some excellent buttermilk cake before… but its the new year… and I don’t want to totally reverse my hours clocked at the gym… so this is really the perfect answer… a slightly adapted version of Cooking Light’s Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake… much “healthier” – because… come on… its still cake. Its not like I’m downing fresh apples and celery sticks over here. So if I’m going to eat cake– and lets face it–I don’t eat bad cake… this is still way tasty and not as terrible as the pound of butter, pound of sugar thing most pound cakes have going for them. (Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.)
However… I’m not sure I helped the calorie cutting at all when I covered them in a nice velvety ganache… but oh well.
Vanilla Almond Buttermilk Pound Cakes
Adapted from Cooking Light
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups low-fat buttermilk
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350°. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt); stir with a whisk. Place sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Spoon batter into mini bundt pans, or cupcake pans with liners. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pans. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Chocolate Ganache
8 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3/4c heavy whipping cream
2 tbs butter
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.