A New Look at an Old Pound Cake Recipe, the Pros and Cons

Making changes to cake recipes is tricky. One never knows how the result will actually come out. Will it be too dry? Will the oven time need changes? How much beating is enough? The pound rava cake recipe my sister sent me all those years ago called for baking in a bundt or tube pan. As the cake starts out in a cold oven, slowly heating to a very low temperature over a lengthy baking time, using an angel food cake pan or other pan that separates at the base is disastrous. I say this from experience. The oven was a mess.

Difficulties with this Recipe

The one problem with the cake is that it has always stuck to the pan. It comes out in pieces. It is still delicious. It can be used cut into a trifle. It can be used as shortcake with fruit over top. It is just not very pretty. An angel food pan would have been ideal, as it is easy to run a knife around the edges to separate, lift out the tube portion and then run the knife around the base. But it cannot be baked in that sort of pan. My thought has been that using a couple of loaf pans would work. The recipe is large, and easily could make 2 smaller loaf pans. A loaf pan has straight sides, making it simple to line with parchment, and thereby eliminating the problem of sticking to the pan. This is not possible in a bundt or other solid tube pan, as they are generally patterned. But, I wondered, how about a silicone bundt pan?

Changes and Substitutions

Today I decided to take the plunge and try out the silicone bundt pan. I also decided to change the recipe slightly. The old recipe tastes marvelous, so taste was never the problem. I recently wrote an article about using coconut milk in place of regular milk or cream for recipes, and decided to try this out. The original recipe called for lemon flavoring. I substituted a very small amount of pure lime oil. These flavors lend a slightly tropical flavor. Tropical sounded really nice to me, on a day that started out at minus 12 degrees.

The original recipe calls for placing the pan in a cold oven and setting the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Timing for the cake was 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Perhaps because I added things to the recipe, with a little more liquid, a little more flour and an extra egg, it took a full 2 hours to bake all the way through. Making this again, I believe I would start the cake in a preheated 325 degree oven and see how that affects the outcome. For now, though I used the silicone bundt pan, the cake still adhered. The flavor is fantastic. Next time, loaf pans will be the star of the day. Here is my recipe.