Borrowing Barefoot: Citrus Mint Pound Cake
So in the pursuit of Barefoot Contessa recipes to mellenial-ize, I sometimes spend the late evenings reading hundreds of recipes and end up with 8,745,498,431,898 open tabs on my computer. The other night, I was using my mom’s computer and had gone to bed settled on muffins. When I walked downstairs in the morning the first thing she said to me was “You have to make that pound cake.” Mmkay, pound cake it is. (Have you ever wondered why Pound Cake is called “pound cake?” Okay so as I was writing this I was like “duh, this is something you can google.” So that was easy. It began with a pound each of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. If you’re reading this, you know me well enough to know that aint happening.)
We love Ina. We love her life, we love her husband, we love her sweet East Hampton cottage. But I think most of all, we love her baked goods. So there’s a lot of pressure for me in this one. Ina has several recipes for pound cake. She has a classic pound cake, a honey vanilla pound cake, an orange pound cake, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Mine is different because first of all its gluten-free and I wanted to use lemons and key limes instead. Also, my mom’s mint plant is out of control right now, so I had to volunteer to use some of it.
This recipe came at the perfect time because I have been eyeing the new Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Baking Mix for a few weeks and wanting to try it out. It contains a mix of almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour and tapioca flour, which is cool because usually you have to mix all those things together yourself when you’re paleo baking #lifehack.
I don’t usually bake things because I have an easy enough time finding treats outside of my own home—I don’t need to introduce any in to my home. But, when I have a crew to help me eat them, I love to bake. My brother, my mom and my mom’s husband were recruited for this daunting task.
I did go for the pound of flour. It seemed appropriate for POUND cake. But I went for less sugar and more fruits. Sometimes it takes me like 10 tries to get a recipe right, I think I nailed this one on the first try. I made a super tart and sweet glaze to go on top, and if you’re anti-sugar, fine skip the glaze but if you’re pro-sugar, DON’T SKIP THE GLAZE.
This pound cake tastes like summer. The mint flavor really comes through and the glaze on top adds all the tart, tangy flavor you could want. It's a perfect dessert, but don't by shy about having it with tea in the afternoon or as part of a well-rounded breakfast. Y’all, bottom line, this cake is delicious. Now gimme a pound.
What You’ll Need:
1 bag of Paleo Baking Flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp of salt
3 eggs
¾ cup lemon juice (about 5 lemons)
⅔ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of three lemons
¼ cup mint leaves, torn
¼ cup basil leaves, torn
For the glaze:
¼ cup organic powdered sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed key lime juice
zest of 3 key limes
10 mint leaves, torn into small pieces
What I Did:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, lemon juice, olive oil, coconut sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, mint and basil. Pour liquid into dry mixture and use a spatula to gently fold until everything is incorporated. Pour batter into loaf pan then place in the oven to bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the loaf.
Once it is done cooking, remove from oven and let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it and setting it on a cooling rack to cool. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Let it cool to the touch.
While the loaf is cooling, whisk together the glaze. While the loaf is still a bit warm, pour the glaze over the top.
