Springtime Pound
Cake
Alicia made this for the
New York Times reporter that interviewed us, and it sounds like she liked
it!
By using whole wheat pastry flour, you might be able to get away with
saying that this is a healthy dessert, since at least it's got whole grain and
fiber in it. Doesn't taste like it, though!
2 cups of whole wheat pastry
flour, very finely ground
1/2 tsp. baking
powder
1/4 tsp.
fine sea salt
2 sticks unsalted organic or
gourmet butter, room temperature (butter quality does matter here)
1.5 cups
of sucanat
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp lemon zest
one squeeze
of lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk, room
temperature
Fruit topping:
about a pint of
quartered fresh strawberries and/or blueberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup
honey
handful of dried organic lavendar flowers
Preheat your oven
to 350 degrees, and butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.
Briskly stir
together the pastry flour, baking powder and salt until well blended. Beat
together the butter and sucanat in a big bowl until fluffy and cloud-like. Add
the eggs one by one, beating in between each. After the last egg, beat in the
lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla. Beating in a much more gentle, slow
motion, add the flour and the milk in alternate batches. Mix until just
blended--don't over do it!
Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan
and bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick comes out of the center fairly
clean. Cool on a rack for about half an hour.
In a saucepan, bring water
to a boil and steep the lavendar flower in it for about 20 minutes. Strain,
return to heat, and dissolve honey into the lavendar tea. Stir in the berries
gently and cook for 10 minutes on medium-low heat. Let mixture
cool.
Spoon lavendar/berry topping over slices of pound cake. Top with
ice cream or whipped cream if you feel like going a little
crazy!