This is the basic pound cake recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio (2009) 61-62, which he notes could become a sponge cake if the ingredients are mixed in a different order. How cool is that? Just working together the same ingredients differently creates a different texture. It’s mostly a matter of whether you cream the butter and sugar together first or whip the eggs and sugar together first. I’m doing the former, which produces a pound cake. The only alteration I made to the recipe was to leave out the lemon-lime flavorings.
Since we’ve got a lot of pulled pork left from yesterday’s Dutch oven adventure, there’s not much dinner prep to serve it in tortillas with some of that cilantro pesto I saved in the freezer. So, I’m putting my effort into the dessert—grilling peaches. After grilling, which cooks the fruit a little, making a compote will be just a matter of heating some honey and vanilla, and then slicing and stirring in the grilled peaches. I was a little impatient about getting good grill marks on the peaches, although I’m sure some food photographers draw them in with markers, but the taste result was exceptional.
Pound Cake with Grilled Peach Compote
Pound Cake, adapted from Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio (2009), 61-62.
Preheat oven to 325°; butter a 9 inch loaf pan.
*Note that I weighed the ingredients for this recipe.
8 oz butter (2 sticks), room temperature
8 oz sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz eggs (it took 5 of my large eggs to make 8 oz)
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz all-purpose flour
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip butter for a minute.
- Add the sugar and salt and beat until very light in color, 2-3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the vanilla.
- Add the flour, mixing at a low speed, until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Pour and spread batter into buttered loaf pan.
- Bake at 325° for 1 hour. Test the center with a toothpick. Mine was done in the hour.
Grilled Peach Compote
4 ripe peaches, halved and pitted
melted butter, for brushing both sides of fruit
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
splash of lemon juice
pinch of sea salt
- Set up grill for direct heat.
- Brush peach halves on both sides with butter.
- Wipe oil on hot cooking grate to prevent sticking. Place peach halves, cut side down, on grate. Close cover and grill for about 2 minutes.
- Turn peaches over, close cover and grill for about another two minutes.
- Cooking time will depend on the ripeness of your peaches, and whether you have the patience to wait for those attractive grill marks.
- Remove peaches to cutting board and slice or chop into edible-sized pieces. You could slide off the peach skin, but I left it on, unless it came off in the slicing.
- In a medium saucepan, heat the honey, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt over medium-low heat, until it begins to foam up. Toss in the peaches and stir until all the peaches are coated and heated through. The peaches should be cooked from the grilling and just need to be coated with the honey sauce. It will draw a lot of juice from the peaches and will not be a thick sauce, which is fine, because the pound cake will soak up a lot of juices.
- Serve peaches over sliced cake with optional whipped cream or ice cream.
Kitchen Portfolio 
Love this combination. I did a similar one myself using whipped cream and brown sugar meringues… got to take advantage of peaches while they’re in season!
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Wow! Those peaches look great. I’ll have to remember to grill some the next time I’m grilling. Also, thanks for the heads up on the pound cake/sponge cake ingredient order information. That’s handy information to have.
And I especially like this: “*Note that I weighed the ingredients for this recipe.” I find that weighing ingredients is so much easier. Fewer measuring cups to use. Less cleanup to do, too!
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Yeah, Ruhlman’s Ratio is eye-opening about all sorts of well-known basic recipes and he advises to weigh ingredients, too. He has a blog as well: http://ruhlman.com
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