Vanilla bean pound cake with whipped cream and kumquat marmalade.

Pound cake is also a crowd pleaser and I’d venture to say this one is no exception. It’s soft, moist, buttery, perfectly sweet, and scented with vanilla bean. It’s perfect eaten all by itself with a cup of coffee or tea, but turns into a truly impressive dessert when some whipped cream and fruit are added.

This pound cake relies on vanilla bean paste for its vanilla flavor and speckling. Vanilla bean paste is now widely available and is much more cost effective and shelf stable than fresh vanilla beans. But, if you happen to have some fresh ones eyeing you from your pantry, antsy to be utilized, by all means scrape the beans from the inside of two and use them instead.

This recipe also includes a bit of sour cream. Adding an acidic dairy product (sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, etc) to a cake can help to create a more moist and tender texture. The acids break down some of the proteins in the flour, which otherwise can create toughness if over mixed. And if you’re not the biggest fan of sour cream, just enough is added to give the cake a slight touch of sourness, which I think balances out the sweetness and butteriness, but not so much that it tastes like sour cream.

Below the pound cake recipe, I included recipes for whipped cream and kumquat marmalade. The whipped cream has no sugar added, because I think the cake has enough sweetness and I love the fresh, simple taste of just cream and a touch of vanilla in this instance. By all means, add some sugar if that is your preference!

As for the kumquat marmalade, I would highly recommend giving this a try if you are able to get your hands on some! They are fully edible (skins and all) and can be super tart, yet still sweet (kinda like a tangerine/lemon combo). Yes, slicing and deseeding kumquats is super tedious, but that is the hardest part of the process and its ends up coming together rather quickly. If you don’t have or want to use kumquats, nearly any other fruit will work. Peak season berries, stone fruit, or supremed citrus are perfect all on their own, unaltered by sugar or cooking. If you’re using berries or stone fruit that could use a little help in the flavor department, add about 1 tablespoon of sugar per 1 pound of prepped fruit and a squeeze of lemon juice, toss to combine, and let sit for at least 30 minutes (up to a few hours in the fridge). The sugar macerates the fruit, which softens it, sweetens it, and creates a nice little sauce, all with minimal work by you.

Makes: 1 x 9inch loaf

Active time: 20 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

237g (1 3/4 cup) all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

227g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (see note)

210g (1 cup) granulated sugar

3 eggs, large, room temperature

134g (2/3 cup) sour cream, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Kumquat Marmalade

200g kumquats, sliced and seeded

60g granulated sugar

1/2 cup water

Whipped Cream

240g (1 cup) heavy cream, cold

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Method

Make the pound cake. Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare a 9” x 5” loaf pan by lightly spraying it and lining the bottom and long sides with a piece of parchment with a 1” overhang.
In a medium bowl, combine 237g (1 3/4 cup) flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 and teaspoon baking powder and whisk. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer), beat 227g (2 sticks) butter and 210g (1 cup) sugar with the paddle attachment on medium until light and very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.
When the butter and sugar are ready, add the eggs one at a time. Make sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding the next. You may need to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as you add the eggs. The mixture may look a bit curdled after the third egg but that’s okay.
Add 134g (2/3 cup) sour cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste and mix for about 30 seconds until fully combined.
Add the previously mixed dry ingredients and mixer on low, just until combined. It’s okay if there are a few dry pockets left. Remove the bowl for the mixer and use a spatula to finishing mixing, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom. The batter should be light in color and very fluffy.
Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan, and use your spatula to even out the top.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, but I like to check the cake at 1 hour, as it could take a bit less or a bit longer, depending on your oven. Pound cakes can easily turn out dry if over baked, so by checking it early, I can make sure I’m taking it out as soon as it is ready and not letting go too long. When it is done, it should be golden brown, feel firm when poked, and a cake tester should come out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then carefully use the parchment overhang to lift the cake from the loaf tin and allow it to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Make the marmalade. While the cake is baking, wash and thinly slice the 200g kumquats. Once the kumquats are sliced, place a small saucepan (big enough to fit the kumquats, sugar, and some water) and a small bowl on your work surface. Using clean hands, go through the kumquat slices, placing the seeds in the bowl and the slices in the saucepan. Kumquats very annoyingly have lots of seeds in them, which are big enough that you need to remove them as they are unpleasant to bite down on and could become a hazard. I also promise you that going through and slicing all of the kumquats and then deseeding them all is more efficient and slightly less maddening than trying to slice and deseed each one as you go.
Once the kumquats are deseeded and in the pot, add 60g granulated sugar and 1/2 cup water. Set the pot over low heat and bring the mixture to a light simmer. Allow it to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the kumquats start to break down and become translucent and the mixture begins to thicken. Very carefully taste (get a bit on a spoon, then let it sit on your cutting board to cool for a minute) to make sure the balance of tartness/sweetness is right for you. This recipe errs on the side of tart, so add more sugar if it’s too much. To test if the marmalade is done, place a small plate in the freezer for 5 minutes. Place a small dollop of marmalade on the cold plate and drag a spoon through the center. If the marmalade fills in the open space quickly, it needs a bit more time. If it does not fill in the opening made by the spoon, it is ready.
Remove from the heat and pour into a small heat proof bowl. Let it cool at room temperature.
Make whipped cream. Whip 240g (1 cup) heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste with the whip attachment of a stand mixer or a hand mixer until medium peaks form. The cream should hold its shape, but start to slump.
Whipped cream can be made a few hours in advance. Hold in the fridge and lightly re whip with a whisk when ready to serve.
To serve. Plate 1/2” slices of pound cake with a generous scoop of whipped cream and kumquat marmalade. Enjoying while outside is highly recommended.
Cake will last up to three days, tightly covered, at room temperature. It can be made up to 1 day in advance, just allow to cool completely then wrap tightly with plastic wrap and keep at room temperature.
Marmalade will last in the fridge up to two weeks. As a note, this recipe is not made for canning, and is a small batch recipe, meant for more immediate consumption.

Notes

With a classic creaming method cake, such as this one, it is really important that the refrigerated ingredients (butter, eggs, sour cream) are all room temperature. If you try to add cold eggs into the butter/sugar mixture, the butter will immediately seize up, creating little flecks of butter, and making it very difficult to get the eggs to properly combine. If you do not have time to let these ingredients sit out for a couple of hours, you can soften the butter but microwaving in 5 second increments and place the eggs (still in their shell) in a small bowl, cover with very warm water, and let sit for about 5 minutes. I will say, if the sour cream still has a little coolness to it, that’s okay, but to help it warm up a bit, scale it into a small bowl, along with the vanilla bean, and stir or whisk for bit.