Brown Sugar Pound Cake

I've always been a fan of Martha Stewart. I don't know exactly when I fell in love with her shows on The Food Network, maybe my last year in high school? Anyhow, I loved her so much that I would plan my schedule around her show and on the off chance that I wasn't at home, I would tape the show to watch at a later time.  I was such the die hard fan, that when I got married, I made sure that R got the cable package that had the The Food Network in its list of channels.  And when Martha Stewart transitioned into the daytime talk show/craft show/food show scene, I, like many of her fans, made the transition with her.  I watched her for several more years until she annoyingly moved her show to a specialty channel and that's when I got cut off. :o(

So now instead of watching her and writing down her recipes, I go to her books for inspiration.  One that I keep handy is Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. It is filled with 175 wonderful cupcake recipes for all sorts of occasions.  What's also great is that just by switching the baking pan, these cupcake recipes can easily become cake recipes.

One of my go-to recipes in the book is the Brown Sugar Pound Cake.  It's got the texture of the classic pound cake but with a nutty, caramel-like taste. It's a very simple recipe to follow and can be made the night before a party or the day of.  I baked this cake the night before a sisters-only event with Shaykh Yahya Rhodus at the Seeker's Hub two weeks back and if I do so say so myself, it was mighty tasty! Instead of using all purpose flour, I used cake flour and this simple change made the cake very light.  If you want to stick with the original recipe, substitute in the all purpose flour for the cake flour.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups light-brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Butter and line 2  8`` or 9`` cake pans with parchment paper or butter 1 Bundt pan.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In another bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well incorporated.  Add flour in three batches, alternating between 2 additions of buttermilk, beating until combined after each.

Divide the batter evenly between to two lined cake pans and bake with the rack in the centre of the oven until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring cakes to a cooling rack.