If you are a fan of Downton Abbey (or even if you’re not), this is a recipe you may be interested in! It’s from a cookbook called Edwardian Cooking: The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook (softcover), which features 80 recipes inspired by this PBS series. Author Larry Edwards, who is also the food editor for the San Francisco Independent, includes lots of recipes for foods you would find at an Edwardian table including…

• Roasted Sweet Red Pepper Cream Tea Sandwiches
• English Popovers
• Cream Scones
• Majestic Potato Soup
• Royal Cheddar Cheese Soup
• Asparagus in Cider Sauce
• Leek Pie
• Orange Glazed Beef Brisket
• Lemon Cream Souffle
• Queen Victoria Rice Pudding
• Raspberry Nut Sponge Cake

As I looked through my review copy one unusually chilly spring evening, I decided to try the Downton Pound Cake. Since I had to actually turn the heat on that evening, I thought I might as well bake something to make the place even more cozy! Besides, pound cakes are wonderful, and this recipe suggests drizzling the cake with some melted dark chocolate, so I was sold on that! 🙂

I have to say, though, that this is not your typical, fool-proof pound cake. This is very crusty on the outside (which is a little different for a pound cake) and has a dense, moist texture on the inside. I just want to mention that so you’re not disappointed with the crusty outer part. Everyone I served it to really liked the crustiness, however. This cake has a wonderful almond flavor, too! You may think putting a whole Tablespoon of almond extract is too much, but it really isn’t in this cake. It  did have a somewhat splotchy coloring when I took it out of the pan after baking, and perhaps it was because I used too much oil when I was greasing my pan–the recipe says to give your pan a light coat of oil, but I’d rather over grease than under grease to prevent a cake from sticking. My cake came out of the pan pretty easily–I had to loosen the edges a little with a knife before removing, though.

The splotchiness doesn’t really matter anyway if you drizzle the top of your cake with dark chocolate, like I did–in fact, I highly recommend doing that! It’s wonderful with the dark chocolate on top–I don’t think the cake would be as good without the chocolate. I just melted a 10-ounce bag of dark chocolate chips in the microwave–I melted the chips in a small microwavable bowl for a minute, then stirred, then melted and stirred every 30 seconds till all the chips were melted–it only takes about 2 to 3 minutes total microwave time to melt all the chips. After the chips were all melted, I also stirred in 1 teaspoon of coconut oil to make the chocolate extra creamy and easier to drizzle.

DOWNTON POUND CAKE from Edwardian Cooking: The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook

Makes 1 bundt cake

• 3 cups flour (I used all-purpose unbleached flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs, separated
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 1 Tablespoon almond extract
• Optional-1 (10-ounce) bag of dark chocolate chips for drizzling over cake

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly brush a bundt cake pan with oil or use a cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and pale.

Beat in the egg yolks, vanilla, and almond extract until smooth.

Add the flour mixture and beat just until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Remove half of the egg whites and stir them into the pound cake batter. Fold the other half of the egg whites into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Place into the oven and bake 60 to 70 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the pan 10 minutes.

Remove cake from the pan and let cool on a wire rack until ready to serve. Note: If you  want to do the holiday version, simply melt some dark chocolate with a touch of butter and drape it along the top of the cake, letting it run down the sides, and scatter some slivered almonds (I melted 1 (10-ounce) bag of dark chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil for my glaze, and decided to leave off the slivered almonds. Make sure you stir in the coconut oil after the chocolate chips are melted). 

One thing I did a little differently from the recipe: I couldn’t find my egg separator, so I didn’t separate the yolks from the egg whites when I was mixing them in the batter. I think the pound cake would have risen a little more had I separated the eggs and whisked those egg whites, so be sure to follow those recipe instructions for best results. Despite my not doing that though, the cake still turned out good and tasted yummy!

The book doesn’t include any photos, but there are lots of great-sounding recipes. Are you a Downton Abbey or a pound cake fan? Or both? 🙂

Linked to Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Inspire Me Monday.