Tartine's Marbled Pound Cake

How is everyone's day so far? Mine has been great, even though it's still getting started. I'm actually here with a cup of coffee and some of this cake...I mean I wouldn't want any of it to go to waste...

I actually picked up this book earlier in the summer as a gift to myself. No special occasion but I had really wanted a cookbook that covered a lot of ground. Tartine has all types of recipes including breakfast pastries, pies, jams, cakes and cookies. I also love that there is a whole chapter on basic bakery recipes, focusing on fundamental ingredients such as pie dough, pastry cream and lemon cream.

This recipe in particular is such a simple cake, but the texture makes it feel like you put much more time and effort into it than you really did. It's as light as angel food cake but still has a dense spongy crumb. You know, maybe I'm the one who hasn't had a good pound cake in a while, because I don't think this result should come as that much of a surprise.

marbled pound cake:
​
​1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup + 2 TBSP butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 TBSP vanilla
(for the chocolate marble)
3 TBSP cocoa powder
​1 TBSP coffee
​

The instructions say to cream the butter and sugar, adding each egg individually until fully incorporated. Then mix in the sour cream and vanilla, and add the flour in last.

To create the marble, set aside 1/3 of the batter in a small bowl. Mix in the cocoa powder and coffee, and swirl batter back in with the vanilla.

The whole thing went into a 350 F oven for about 30 minutes.

This recipe didn't include frosting, and frankly it doesn't need it. Regardless, I had the ingredients to make a quick cream cheese frosting that would run down the sides, so I did just that!

1 stick of room temp butter
1/2 block of room temp cream cheese
splash of vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
(if the mixture needs to be thinner, go ahead an add more milk to your liking)

​Enjoy!