Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

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Heavenly Cake Baker Submission #17
I know there are prettier pound cakes out there, but I can’t imagine anything tasting better.  This cake is so tender and the syrup just adds to the full-bodied vanilla flavor.  I made a double recipe.  Two cakes are going to work tomorrow.  Two cakes are going to a friend’s house, and one has disappeared.
First, vanilla bean seeds are mixed with superfine sugar.  Then, the eggs, milk and vanilla are combined.  The vanilla sugar is mixed with cake flour, baking powder and salt.  Finally, the butter and liquids are included.
I used disposable mini loaf pans, but they may have been just a little too small.  There was half an inch to spare when the batter went into the pans, but I did have a little bit of overflow.
Now, I need a little advice from my HCB blogging friends.  Do any of you use a convection oven?  I was in Poland recently, and tried to bake a coffee cake and biscuits in an apartment oven.  Converting F to C was easy, but I couldn’t make sense out of the symbols on the knob.  Even searching the manufacturer’s website left me confused.

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don’t post recipes from this book on the internet. One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook. That strategy worked on me! After follow the group’s baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon.

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Comments

  1. faithy, the baker

    Your pound cake looks yummy! Mine is all gone..now looking at yours makes me drool for more!

    The symbols look to me like heat (or grill) on top only. The left side looks like heat (or grill) on both bottom & top. The right sides looks strange..like the paint came off..lol!

  2. ButterYum

    Hi Lois – I have a convection oven. Some of the settings generate heat from the bottom, some from the top, and others from both. Perhaps that explains the funny symbols (??).

    🙂
    ButterYum

  3. ButterYum

    Hi again – I sent your pic to a friend who is from Europe. She described the oven dial settings as this:

    Wavy line on top: only top heat (grill)
    Wavy line on the bottom: only bottom heat
    Way lines on top and bottom: both bottom and top heat
    And I see a symbol for a fan (that would be the convection option). The other symbols are too worn out.

  5. Vicki

    You are so right about the flavor of this pound cake and very smart to double the recipe. The dials look like hieroglyphics to me! I do know if the fan is engaged it reduces the baking time.

  6. Vicki

    P.S. Is there a brand on this oven? I’ve often found instructions from appliances, etc on the net even if they are quite old.

  9. Lois B

    Jenn – thanks, the plate is a find from Marshall’s. I’m getting quite a collection of white plates, just one of each for photos. I bought one recently in Poland with a cameo on the outter band. The saleman seemed so surprised that I only wanted one. Perhaps he’ll think I needed a replacement, rather than I’m nutty about photographing food.

    Monica – thanks, I keep studying my camera manual trying to catch up with you!

  11. Lo

    Ha! This pound cake sounds delicious enough to tempt me into buying the book 🙂 Guess that’s a tribute to you and your lovely description.

  12. Lois B

    Lo – (that’s what people call me too) you won’t be disappointed in the book. I’ve been baking from scratch for at least 40 years, and I’m learning a lot!