The last cake is a hard pass for us. Too much coconut. My wife gave up eating it after two pieces so it took forever to consume.
This week is a Chocolate Pound Cake hopefully using what I have learned. I am trying to create a base recipe from which most every flavor of cake can emerge and which can have recipe substitutions with ease. So here goes with my first stab at a recipe:
Chocolate Pound Cake
by Mike Dixon
2 Sticks Butter
1/2 Cup Shortening
3 Cups Sugar
5 Large Eggs
3 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
Cream together room temperature butter and shortening, add sugar and cream until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth. Sift Flour, Cocoa Powder, and Baking Powder three times and add to batter alternating with Heavy Cream. Start and end with dry ingredients. Scrape down bowl twice. Add vanilla extra and mix until smooth. Bake at 325F for 90 minutes or until a cake tester come out clean.
It actually took 100 minutes, but I've found my baking times seem a little long as compared to most recipes so I'll leave the recipe as 90 minutes.
The subs one should consider depending upon the ingredients on hand are:
Milk for Heavy Cream (will not be as crunchy in the crust)
Remove Shortening and add 1 Large Egg (will be a little less moist)
I plan for one more cake in this series, a plain vanilla cake OR one which has some lemon extract with the vanilla. This was cake number 11 and the plan is to end on cake number 12.