Plans have changed and we are traveling to the coast today instead of last Wednesday, so there will be no meal planning (it actually takes me quite a long time to write the meal planning newsletters). But I didn’t want to leave everyone without a little something tasty to chew on for the week.
When I shared the image of my Mimosa Pound Cake on social media last week quite a few of you asked for the recipe. I usually point folks to the edition and page number where the recipe can be found in Joy because we’re not keen on giving away recipes on social media. As much as we want to be generous, we have found that giving away ideas and recipes for free devalues our work (and the work of everyone else in our field) and leads to a sense of entitlement from some followers.
For example, when we post a photo of something we just whipped up for dinner, we often get the dreaded “Recipe?” comment. I understand that this doesn’t come from a malicious place, but everyone needs to know that developing a recipe takes hours. Sometimes many, many hours. It is not an easy or small thing to create recipes, and we usually post inspirational or instructional content for that reason. To have someone comment “Recipe?” makes me feel a bit like a vending machine, and I’m not too keen on that feeling.
All that is to say, today I am sharing an actual recipe because I appreciate all of you who have subscribed to this newsletter and continue to read it as I figure out what exactly I’m doing. A little backstory:
I developed this recipe about 10 years ago for my farmer’s market baking business, The Little Blue Baking Company. I sold small batch baked goods at the Knoxville Farmer’s Market, and while much of my inventory rotated with the seasons I wanted a few staples for my table. This pound cake was one of them. I adapted my grandmother’s 7Up pound cake recipe to use sparkling wine and added an orange and sparkling wine glaze. It reliably sold out at the market. When we moved to Portland I got a job at a fine dining restaurant and made this cake regularly for the pastry plate on our brunch menu, to rave reviews.
As a southerner, I have very specific requirements for pound cake. It should have a dense, velvety texture that is never gummy. I won’t say that a good pound cake can never have a chemical leavener like baking powder or baking soda, but when I see those things in a pound cake recipe I give it a little side-eye. The best pound cake recipes I’ve made use only eggs as the leavener.
This recipe can be made with flat sparkling wine, so if you have a partial bottle around, feel free to use it here. Alternatively, I will pick up a couple of those tiny sparkling wine bottles from the grocery store. There is no reason to use expensive sparkling wine in this recipe unless you just have some left over. The nuances of nicer wines will be lost to the cooking process. If you abstain, you can in fact make this recipe with 7Up or probably any light colored soda. If you do this, let me know how it turns out!
Mimosa Pound Cake
One 9- or 10-inch Bundt cake; about 16 servings
Have all ingredients at room temperature, about 70F.
Preheat the oven to 325F. Use shortening to grease and flour a 9- or 10-inch Bundt pan, making sure to get into all the crevices.
Beat in a large bowl, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, until smooth:
2 sticks (8oz or 225g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (95g) vegetable shortening
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt (or 1 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt)
Add and cream on medium speed until very fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times in the process:
3 cups (600g) sugar
Add one at a time, beating until combined and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition:
5 large eggs
Add in 3 parts:
3 cups cake (330g) or pastry (360g) flour
alternating with, in 2 parts:
1 cup sparkling wine, poured and settled
Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl a final time then mixing for 10 seconds on high speed to combine everything well (overworking the batter is not a major concern here because of the high fat content and the use of low-protein flour). Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour 10 minutes.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert and unmold onto a rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, to prepare the glaze, beat together in a medium bowl:
3 cups (300g) powdered sugar, sifted
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
1/4 to 1/3 cup sparkling wine, or enough to reach a thick but pourable consistency
Place a piece of parchment paper under the rack the cake is sitting on. Pour the glaze over the cake. Let set for 10 minutes.
Featured dinner from last week
This was our steakhouse dinner last week, with grilled hanger steak, a romaine wedge with homemade blue cheese dressing (page 577), bacon, pickled red onions (page 930), and chives, and baked potatoes with lemon pickle butter and labneh instead of sour cream. The lemon pickle butter is made by my dear friend, Kusum. They make a fermented Indian-style lemon pickle and mix it into softened butter. It has a really bright flavor with a deep undercurrent of toasted spices that improves anything it touches.
Mimosa Pound Cake
Could I make this in 2 loaf pans instead (no bundt pans)?
I absolutely love this recipe, and as I abstain (love how you worded that!) my wife will be trying a light soda when she makes it. Would you go for Sprite, 7 Up, or just a carbonated flavored water? ~~Jessica J from Mount Airy, NC