French Fridays: Orange pound cake from My Paris Kitchen

David Lebovitz Orange Pound Cake from My Paris Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comThis week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen was actually a Bay Leaf Pound Cake with an orange glaze but I opted for a plain orange pound cake that David suggests. The bay leaf version involved infusing butter with bay leaves for a while and I thought that apart from the fact that I wasn’t too excited about the idea of bay leaves in a sweet recipe, it just made the recipe a bit too fussy.

Top view Orange Pound Cake from My Paris Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comWhat I love the most about pound cakes is their simplicity – traditionally a pound cake contains a pound each of four ingredients – eggs, butter, flour and sugar (or at leas the same amount of each ingredient by weight) and how they come together in no time.

Orange Glaze Drizzle Orange Pound Cake from My Paris Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comThe orange version calls for you to mix a fairly large amount of orange peel (not zest) into the sugar using a food processor. I know my full-sized food processor would not chop that amount of peel finely enough so I used my mini processor and started with some of the peel and the sugar to see how it fared. It it didn’t do a great job chopping the peel into small pieces either and because I really dislike the bitterness from peel, I proceeded with the other two oranges, using the zest only in the sugar. That worked much better.

Glazed Orange Pound Cake from My Paris Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.comThis cake was SO good – the orange flavour was very pronounced which I loved – and the glaze totally made it (icing sugar and orange juice). Shared with neighbours for their birthdays and colleagues in my staff room (a much-needed pick me up on a dreary Monday).

Slices of Orange Pound Cake from My Paris Kitchen on eatlivetravelwrite.com

Get the recipe for David Lebovitz’s Bay Leaf Pound Cake with Orange Glaze (or this Orange version) on page 296 of My Paris Kitchen.

MyParisKitchenDavidLebovitz

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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “My Paris Kitchen” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.

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10 thoughts on “French Fridays: Orange pound cake from My Paris Kitchen”

  1. Pound cake really is the roast chicken of desserts, isn’t it: simple and oh-so comforting. This was deelish, (What little I managed to score before it was whisked off to said neighbours and staff…)

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  2. Looks delightful! Love the thickness of your glaze, mine never ever turns this way (cos I am always messing with the quantity of the sugar!). Hubby’s watching his sugar intake, hence not baking much these days!

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  3. Yes, I can imagine this cake being so lovely on a cool fall day (or a cold wintery one for that matter). That bright orange-y acidity with the speckled icing really seems like a little taste and visual sensation!

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  4. I am getting out my copy of David’s book and making this cake. Thanks for all the great tips. I might use my Vitamix for grinding the sugar and orange peel. I am a docent in Wilder State Park on the Pacific Coast here in California and we cook with school children in a Victorian kitchen with an old fashioned wood stove. It is so much fun.

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  5. Considering that the bay didn’t seem to add much to the cake, I can see why you went with the full on orange version. I might try this again some time with fresh bay leaves, to see if it makes a difference.

    Reply

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