Settling into a new routine has been a little tough. After running my kitchen shop for 15 years (8 of those years in city 250 miles away from my ranch home) much has been neglected. Much. Slowly, I am getting rid of transactions, inventory, fixtures, responsibilities, payments – the wave of tiny tasks that drowned my former retail days are subsiding like the tide.
Right now, although it is not so obvious, I am writing up a storm. I’m reading, and listening to audio books. I’m photographing and editing. The days are too short for everything that is on my to-do list.
And, finally, I am cooking. I have had this crazy little cake mold on my shelf for some time now. Maybe it belonged to one of my grandmothers, but in the ebb and flow of kitchen novelties that roll through my kitchen, heaven knows where it came from. The inside points had the tiniest bit of rust, but I scrubbed it clean and oiled it. Good as new!
It’s an easy cake to finish at the last minute.
Cardamom Spice Pecan Cake is a New Classic
I developed this Cardamom Spice Pecan Pound Cake with Ruby Red Glaze, reminiscent of tea cakes I have enjoyed in England. No buttercream, nothing gooey, and not too sweet, this cake is a great dunker for coffee.
But let’s not be sanctimonious about enjoying a cake without frosting, buttercream or goo. The Ruby Red glaze on this cake is amazing, and will probably show up again in other recipes, such as cookies, turnovers or other cakes. Heck, it’s delectable simply licked off the spoon. And I got to use one of the thousands of grapefruit we are currently harvesting here at the ranch. An ocean of grapefruit.
This week, I will be attending a seminar, so I can finally learn how to archive and recall my photos out of the mess I currently manage. A body of photographic work is forming, all with me as the artist.
Recently, I have become fixated on how large amounts of work are composed of millions of tiny elements. Loads of transactions. Loads of photos. Loads of loads of grapefruit. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the quantity of the elements. Sorting the elements day by day…there is so much to do.
Next time, I might make a double back of the glaze. Delish!
Cardamom Spice Pecan Pound Cake with Ruby Red Glaze Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30-35 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Ingredients
Cake:
2 ¼ cup cake flour (280gr)
1 tsp. baking powder (4 gr)
½ tsp. baking soda (2 gr)
½ tsp. salt (2 gr)
¾ cup honey (177 ml)
½ stick butter (2 oz or 57 gr)
½ tsp. ground cardamom (2 gr)
½ tsp. ground allspice (2 gr)
3 eggs
¾ cups packed brown sugar (150 gr)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (15 ml)
1 cup pecans, chopped (100 gr)
Glaze:
1/4 cup ruby red grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed if possible (60 ml)
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted (200 gr)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9″x5″ loaf pan.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a medium sized microwavable bowl, heat the honey and butter until melted, about 30 seconds on high setting. Once the bowl is removed from the microwave, stir in the cardamom and the allspice.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar together with an electric mixer, until just mixed. Add half of the flour mixture, and half of the honey mixture, and combine with the electric mixer for about 10 seconds. Add the remaining flour and honey mixtures, combining with the mixture for another 20-30 seconds. Make sure the flor is thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the pecans.
Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when tested. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from the loaf pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the glaze, combine the juice and powdered sugar, stirring until smooth. Pour over the cake, and serve after glaze has set.
Beautiful images Melissa! We love cardamom, and the grapefruit glaze sounds fabulous! How did the Lightroom Seminar go?
Hey Tamara!! IT WAS AWESOME! but boring too. Is that an answer? More than anything I learned the basics of organaizing, which I am behind in. Gotta keep on trying. I can share some of the info, lets get together…