Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A Chevre Pound Cake?

One of the best parts of what I do is getting to share, with those kind enough to join my classes, ingredients, techniques and tastes that I am passionate about. In my early autumn schedule I included a Wine and Cheese Party and Cheese Making classes. I'll share them soon since they were so much fun. Needless to say, most of October was all about cheese. Excitingly, the cheese making class filled twice so I was able to share with lots of people some of my favorite things.

Another best part of what I do is getting to entertain and feed people. In all of my classes there is tasting and I hope special little touches that make is seem like a party. For the second of the cheese making classes, at the last minute I decided to make a goat cheese coffee cake (clever) for my guests to enjoy.

It requires few ingredients but a lot of them. A cup of chevre, 3/4# of butter and 6 eggs are scented with a bit of lemon zest and vanilla extract. Using fiori di sicillia would be a lovely substitute for the vanilla and lemon.


The perfect way to use the back stock of eggs in the fridge.


Really beating the butter and cheese is important since this is a really dense cake with no added leavening.


Light, fluffy and the prettiest pale yellow color.


I like to use a trigger cookie scoop for transferring and portioning cake batter neatly. The batter is really thick.


It's a pretty cake with a dusting of powdered sugar. Dense as a pound cake should be but with a more complex flavor. While it doesn't taste goat-y, the cheese definitely adds a nice tang. The only thing that would make this cake better is using homemade goat cheese.

However would I do that, you ask?

Stop by the yellow house again soon and I'll show you.


Chevre Pound Cake
from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company

1 cup soft chevre, at room temperature
3 sticks butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 t. grated lemon zest
2 t. vanilla extract
6 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the chevre and butter in a mixer. Add the sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is very light.

Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until light and fluffy.

Reduce the speed of the mixture to low and add the flour, beating just until the batter is mixed.

Spoon into a tube pan.

Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Invert onto a rack and cook completely.

No comments: