My absolute favorite cookbooks are the ones put out by Williams Sonoma - each recipe has a gorgeous picture to accompany it and never once has an item failed me. So this Fourth of July, when the kiddies I was sitting for asked what we were making for dessert, I headed to the Internet to look up a cake recipe.
I found their recipe for a simple pound cake and decided to make it a little Red, White and Blue themed (minus the blue because I am not a super lover of cooked blueberries, but you could add blackberries if you have them). Here is the recipe adapted from the original.
For the Cake:
2 sticks butter, softened
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt or sour cream
5 eggs
For the Filling:
4 stalks rhubarb, cut into small chunks
1/2 bag frozen raspberries
1 Tbs lemons juice
1/4 cup sugar
(adding blackberries here will turn the filling a purple color, so hold off if you want red and white)
Combine the filling ingredients in a saucepan and cook down until the rhubarb is soft. Let cool.
Combine the wet cake ingredients and then add the dry. Use a mixer to be sure there aren't any lumps. You can add some almond extract if you want, too - about 1 tsp.
Spray a Bundt pan. Pour in about 1/3 of the cake batter. Add all the fruit compote. Finally, the remaining 2/3 batter. This is my secret tip so the cake doesn't stick to the pan AND you get a gorgeous layer of fruit.
Bake the cake at 350 degrees for a little over an hour. Check the cake portion, not the filling part so you get a correct measurement. Let cool before serving and serve up nice, thick slices with a glass of milk.
The cake went so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the sliced product, but you can see the fruit layer in the picture.