The Pound Cake Redemption

Poundcake! What is not to love about this sweet, dense little cake with its soft, chewy texture? It can be served in any number of ways with icing, ice cream, fruit, whipped cream, chocolate, or even just plain. Certainly, it's a very versatile little baked good.

When the Redheads last hung out, we made garlic croutons and worked on our last article (along with general distractedness involving games, cats, and internet). During this procedure, we had the grand epiphany of, "What would sweet croutons be like?"

Dorky genius. Cardigans make you SMART!

Braingasm.

There may have been velociraptor nonsense involved.

So, like the culinary scientists we are, we immediately started concocting possible award winning formulas for our godly treat.

SCIENCE!!!

 Interruption: We have just been informed by our lawyer that it is unethical to lie.We made the recipe in 5 minutes, after stealing general proportions from Caitlin's Garlic Crouton recipe, which we'll be covering in another post at some point in the future. 
      
Addendum: We don't actually have a lawyer. Caitlin's cat told us.

After a bit of discussion, we finally settled on two test batches, one made with cinnamon, and the other one with nutmeg. To both batches, we added a touch of allspice. Cinnamon was chosen because it seemed like a safe bet, and nutmeg was chosen because it generally sounded and smelled awesome in the container. Allspice was chosen because it tends to go well with both, and we wanted an accent flavor.

As a note, we only had one loaf of pound cake to play with, so we cut it in half; our recipe will be reflecting that. We'll also give you the recipe for a whole loaf with each at the end.

So, onto what you'll need utensil and ingredients wise!

Supplies
-Cutting board
-Knife - Any knife will do, pound cake tends to cut very nicely and easily, just try to avoid serrated knives, as they can create lots of crumbs.
-A small pan or pot.
-A fork - Really useful when mixing spices
-A sheet pan
-Tin foil

Ingredients
-Granulated sugar
-Butter or margerine
-A loaf of pound cake
-Allspice
-Nutmeg
-Cinnamon

Pretty simple, right? Exactly! Just what we like and aim for. Why should recipes have to be complicated to be delicious? Now, we were out of butter, so we used margarine, but we like butter more, so feel free to use it!

Recipe Breakdown

Cinnamon Pound cake Croutons
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
3 oz Margarine (or butter)
1/2 of a pound cake loaf.
Pinch of Allspice
Bake 15 minutes at 350 Degrees

Nutmeg Pound cake Croutons
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp Nutmeg
3 oz Margarine (or butter)
1/2 of a Pound cake loaf
Pinch of Allspice
Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees

Order of Operations

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees and line the sheet pan with foil.

2. Cut the 1/2 loaf into cubes. I made my slices about 1 1/4 inches wide.

Then cut each slice into 6 pieces, to get me a decent cube size.

Steady as she goes!

Some cubes were sacrificed to the cause of "Quality Control." Om nom nom 

3. Measure out the sugar and spices for the version you're choosing, and mix them in a small bowl with a fork.

Fancy scale not included previously.

Cinnamon goodness.

The nutmeg was so intense it blurred the photo.
Kidding, Caitlin just owns a potato.

4. Over medium low heat, melt the margarine in a pan; once melted, mix in the spices and sugar.

5. Cook for about five minutes, or until the mixture starts to reduce and look slightly foamy on top.

6. Place pound cake cubes on the sheet pan, and pour the spice mixture carefully over them as this is basically sugar getting ready to boil. Also, try to make sure each piece is evenly coated.

We accidentally in the bowl.

Proper procedure.

7. Place them in the oven, and bake for the amount of time specified for your chosen spice recipe.

Holding pans is thirsty work.

Potato is not heat resistant.

We, especially Saryn, would like to stress the golden rule of cooking now.

Clean As You Go. 

OH GOD IT'S EVERYWHERE

We cannot stress this enough. Not only is it responsible and polite of you as a room mate, child, spouse, partner, pet, or parent, but also helps keep stress down on your part. Trust us, the worst thing in the world is to look at a sink full of dishes, and imagine having to do them. Do 'em as you get them. You and the people you share your kitchen with will thank you.

A tidy kitchen is a happy kitchen. :D

So, since we ARE food nerds, we're going to go over what we thought of our own creation. We actually were anticipating to like the cinnamon croutons a lot more than the nutmeg. When we were mixing the spices, the nutmeg one had a lovely aroma, but not a lot of flavor, so we were anticipating it to be more of an aromatic pound cake, rather than flavorful. We were certainly surprised at our results.

Nutmeg!

Cinnamon!

Right out of the oven, we noticed the difference. The cinnamon croutons had a lovely caramelized cinnamon crust going on, much like a cinnamon roll. They smelled divine. Pretty much just like a cinnamon roll, nothing to really write a letter to Mother about. The nutmeg croutons, however, were a different story. They were golden, and kinda looked like french toast, almost. Since we only baked our nutmeg batch 15 minutes, they were somewhat soggy, but letting them rest in the air for a bit changed the slight sogginess into an amazing crust with a sugary crunch when we first bit in.

 Flavor-wise, we had another surprise coming. The cinnamon one was very good, like a cinnamon roll. Great texture, a bit more crunch than Caitlin's boyfriend liked but still good. Saryn rather liked the texture, which in her opinion exceeded regular cinnamon rolls. The nutmeg was mouthgasmly good. Great spice ratio, great texture. We imagine it going amazingly well with ice cream like coffee or banana, or even pudding. The cinnamon ones would be a great snack by themselves- No, wait. Both are. But we thought of fewer things the cinnamon ones would go amazingly well with. More subtle ice creams like vanilla and banana would be good with the cinnamon, but nothing very potent.

An additional use for the cinnamon croutons: Fresh out of the oven, put them over banana ice cream for a makeshift kind of bananas foster!

So, Saryn and Caitlin personally enjoyed the nutmeg ones more, but Caitlin's boyfriend votes for the cinnamon croutons. We'll leave it up to you to decide which one you prefer.

Whoops.