Possibly The Best Thing I've Eaten All Month

Honey Vanilla Pound Cake with Blackberry Fool

The LB cake recipe comes from Ina Garten's new book, "Back to Basics" and the blackberry fool ("fool" because you'd be foolish NOT to eat it, right??) is inspired from Martha Stewart's "Everyday Food" magazine. Because plain old pound cake isn't good enough, I decided to combine the two and it is a dynamite dessert, particularly with some vanilla ice cream. It's rich and refreshing, easy to make, and a great Memorial Day dessert.I'll let you know if I come up with a fat free version:)
Serves 6-8



1/2 lb unsalted butter, at cool room temperature*
1 1/4 cups sugar4 extra large eggs, room temperature
2 Tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and all sides of a bread loaf pan. Set aside.

In a bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for three minutes, until light. Meanwhile, put the eggs, vanilla, honey, and lemon zest in a glass measuring cup but do not combine. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the egg mixture, one egg at a time, scraping down the bowl and allowing each egg to incorporate before adding the next one.

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder all together. With the mixer on low speed, add it slowly until JUST combined (if you overwork it, the gluten will work up resulting in a very hard cake... gross). Finish mixing batter gently with a rubber scrapper and pour it into the prepared pan. Smooth out top, and bake for 50-60 minutes until just done (check cake around the 40 minute mark). Cool in pan for 15 minutes, and then turn out and let cool completely on wire rack.


*According to Mrs Ina G., "cool room temperature" butter means to leave the butter out at room temp. for one hour before using it.



Blackberry Fool

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups blackberries

In a blender, puree the blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Drain this mixture through a fine mesh sleeve into a large bowl. From this bowl, take 1/2 cup of the strained mixture, and stick in fridge (this is the "syrup"). Discard the seeds, and put the remaining strained mixture aside for a moment.

In a bowl with a whisk attachment, whip cream until stiff peaks form. Add remaining strained mixture, folding in gently with a rubber spatula (it should be a nice lavender color hue). Keep in fridge covered until ready to use.

Assembly

Slice pound cake into desired thickness. Place one hefty scoop of blackberry-cream mixture on top. Drizzle blackberry syrup all over (this was the 1/2 cup you put aside, remember?). Finish this all off with some French Vanilla ice cream. It only adds a few more calories:).