It's hard to fully enjoy a dessert named after a unit of measure that we'd prefer not to consider while eating.
But a sixteenth of this dark, fudgy, coconutty pound cake will do nothing but love you back.
It's the accompanying scoop of salted caramel gelato that's up to no good.
Chocolate-coconut pound cake
Makes 1 loaf
Adapted from Bon Appétit
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick) plus a bit more for greasing the pan
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 (heapting) tsp. salt
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, liquified
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 Tbsp. turbinado sugar
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter a loaf pan and then line it with parchment paper, leaving plenty of overhand on the long sides.
In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, the coconut oil, and the regular sugar until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, blending between each, until the mixture doubles in volume, another 5+ minutes. Mix in the vanilla.
With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with 2 buttermilk additions. That's dry-buttermilk-dry-buttermilk-dry. Don't dare to go in a different order or to overmix.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan and pull a spatula down the center of its length to create a canal. This will protect it from buckling up and splitting down its middle. (If only pants offered such protection.)
Sprinkle the top of the cake with coconut and turbinado sugar before baking for 70-80 minutes, tenting with foil when the coconut becomes brown enough. Consider the pound cake baked when a tester inserted into its center comes out clean save a few [m-word] crumbs.
Set the pan on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before running a knife along its short sides and then lifting it out with the parchment's help.
Pick your weapon of excess and anoint accordingly.