All That Butter

6 eggs and too much butter pound cake

When I was packing up my household to move here nearly three years ago--can it possibly be three years already?--I disposed of almost all of my kitchen equipment:  appliances (the electric plugs are different here), dishes (too difficult and fragile to ship and I was going to be living in a furnished apartment where they were already provided) and especially my baking pans. (I was moving to the land of professional bakeries--why did I need to bake anything when M Bimas does it so  However, as my dear friend Catherine put it, "Sometimes you just want a piece of cake."  The desserts here are more often works of art and a delicate balance of flavors and textures.  Pound cakes they aren't.  And found myself wanting a piece of pound cake.

http://www.patisserie-bimas-carcassonne.fr/well?)  Check out M Bimas website and you will understand why I never expected to do any' baking  again. He is just around the corner.

As I might have mentioned in earlier posts, cooking, and especially baking here can be an adventure.  I have had to learn new measurements, new ingredients, new cooking temperatures.  I have done well enough--my Morning Glory muffins are becoming legend.  I took second prize in the last amateur bakers' chocolate cake contest.  But my latest effort, a plain vanilla pound cake, was one crumb short of a disaster.

I think it was caused by the different fat content of the butter I used.  Ingredients here are not the same as in the States.  Butter has a higher fat content. There is no such thing as light and dark brown sugar, and what brown sugar there is here is coarse and granular.  Baking soda is grainy and sometimes doesn't completely dissolve. (It's great for scrubbing the glass stove top, though)  You could say I am still somewhere on the learning curve when it comes to baking here.  

Fortunately, I don't get the urge to do so very often, but I wanted a plain old piece of pound cake.  I have a recipe that uses cream cheese that always works well, but I did not have any cream cheese on hand and did not want to make a special trip to get some.  So, I went for the 6-egg pound cake recipe I found on line.  It called for, in addition to the obvious 6 eggs  a cup and a half of butter, which according to the Internet conversion table I used amounts to 450 grams.

So, one of several things happened.  1.   I got my calculations wrong.  It wouldn't be the first time.   2.  I measured incorrectly.  Ditto that prior comment.  3.  I over beat the butter and sugar as I was trying to get it "light and fluffy"--What does that mean anyway? Light and fluffy?  It's butter and  sugar--mine was heavy and dense.  4. The fat content of the butter I used was greater than what the test kitchen used.  That's the explanation I am going to use.  

Cake with fresh berries--ignore the guacamole

The cake looked beautiful, with that golden brown crust that screams "pound cake."  It smelled heavenly--have you ever walked by a French bakery when they are making croissants?  There is nothing like the smell of that butter....and my whole apartment was perfumed with it.  But, when I cut into it, the crumb was all wrong.  It was dense enough, but the crumb was coarse and almost cornmeal-ish.  Not what a pound cake is supposed to look like at all.  But worst of all, it was slightly greasy...oily.  Too much fat.  The only thing that saved it from the garbage can was the fact that it tastes great.  It's all that butter.

I got 32 slices from the bundt cake...twice as many as the recipe calls for.  So, 30 are in the freezer and I can pull out a slice for a weekly treat and not feel any guilt, as I have halved the calories and carbs.  I will take another run at a pound cake in another year or so.