Brown Sugar, Maple & Almond Pound Cake

I’ve been a sloth of late.

As mentioned in my recent food post, summer can get too warm for baking. Today I am here to contradict myself; the weather in Singapore is just that unpredictable anyway. Just like how it’s been raining the past two days. Heavy, continuous rain. In the middle of summer. Surprise, surprise.

So, my oven’s been pretty lonely for a while now. I decided to turn the heat up again, with something really classic and simple: the pound cake.

I understand I have a sweet tooth. I also understand I should start including more savoury recipes on my blog before I lose a whole group of potential readers…

But, sometimes I really can’t help it. That’s the case again with today’s feature.

Maple syrup has got to be one of those things I absolutely cannot resist. Take for example my abstinence from fast food. I haven’t eaten a meal of fast food for the longest time (McDonald’s has become my #1 food enemy) purely for health reasons.

But Macs breakfast of hotcakes plus a mountain — and I really mean a mountain, because I can eat two whole packets for just three measly hotcakes — of maple syrup? There is no way on God’s good earth I can say no. (Once again, I contradict myself in this post.) So yeah, Ronald, you got me there.

And now with this maple pound cake, it’s like Sara Lee and Martha Stewart have joined hands to send me laughing all the way home.

This, my friends, is the sweet life.

Brown Sugar, Maple & Almond Pound Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe on MarthaStewart.com

Yield: one whole loaf approximately 4.5 by 8.5 inch

• 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 5 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 3/4 cup almonds (the original recipe used pecans; you can substitute with any nut you like)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C (approximately 338 degrees F). Lightly grease and flour a 4.5 by 8.5 inch loaf pan and set aside.

2. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and into the oven while it is preheating. After 10 minutes they will be lightly toasted. Remove baking sheet from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before roughly chopping the nuts. Set aside in a small bowl.

3. Using a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment (I use a Kenwood stand mixer), beat the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed for 7 minutes until mixture is light and fluffy (this thus omits the need for a rising agent). Scrape down the bowl’s sides and beat for another minute.

4. On medium speed, add the maple syrup to the mixture. Then add the eggs gradually, beating until the mixture is well combined.

5. On low speed, add the salt. Then add the flour gradually, beating well to combine and scraping down the bowl as needed.

6. Once combined, lightly fold the nuts into the batter.

7. Transfer the batter to the pan. Bake in the oven for approximately an hour, or until browned on top and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean with a few moist crumbs.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan on a standing rack for an hour. Remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool completely on a rack before slicing.

P/S. For another flavour of pound cake (you know there are endless), you can check out my fellow baker friend’s post 🙂