Ruby Red Pound Cake
Happy New Year, y’all!
First, I must apologize for my long absence. While I can blame my lack of updates partly on my trip home to Texas, the truth is I returned from Texas over a week ago. The real reason I haven’t shared a recipe lately is because I had an idea to make January the month of lighter desserts. I thought y’all would appreciate it after all the rich holiday food. However, when I set out to bake healthy desserts, I realized that I am strongly against desserts being made over into something lighter. I feel that a small portion of a real dessert is infinitely better than a big piece of lower calorie almost-good dessert. I chose to stick with what I know—butter and sugar. Since Texas ruby red grapefruits are in season right now, I thought they’d make a nice addition to butter and sugar in the form of a rich pound cake. I think you’ll forgive me for the high calorie temptation after just one bite.
- FOR THE CAKE:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon grapefruit zest (from 1 medium grapefruit)
- 1 large egg
- Pinch of salt
- ⅛ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup flour
- 3 tablespoons buttermilk
- FOR THE GLAZE:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh grapefruit juice
- Tiniest splash of whiskey (optional, of course)
- Before beginning, set all ingredients for the cake on the counter and let them come to room temperature.
- Then, butter a 5 ¾” x 3” x 2” mini loaf pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- In a medium bowl, beat together with an electric mixer the butter, sugar and grapefruit zest. Beat this mixture for 3-5 minutes, until it becomes fluffy and pale yellow.
- Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Next, add the baking powder, salt and half of the flour. Mix to combine, and then add the buttermilk. Add the remaining flour and mix just until combined—do not over-mix the batter.
- Pour the batter into the pan, place it on a small cookie sheet and bake 40-43 minutes. A wooden skewer inserted should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow the pound cake to cool for a few minutes before running a knife around the edge of the pan and dumping out the cake.
- Before serving, whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cake.
welcome back, I love ruby reds…i had them with my salad for lunch today..a perfect texas treat!
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welcome back, I love ruby reds…i had them with my salad for lunch today..a perfect texas treat!
sweetlife
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Grapefruits are probably my favourite fruit. This is the most interesting loaf recipe I have ever seen, and it is going on my must-make-soon list!
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welcome back Christinia! this recipe sounds so tempting
this would go well with my morning coffee right now. thank you for sharing this and have a great day.
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Oh wow, this makes me wish I liked grapefruit! My husband would definitely love this!
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I’ve never done any baking with grapefruit flavors! How refreshing.
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Welcome back! Hope you and your family had a great holiday season! And I totally agree with you on the baking front…better to have a little bit of real dessert then alot of the fake yucky stuff! LOL!
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Happy New Year to you! Welcome back! This pound cake looks amazing!!
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Yum, this cake looks fabulous!
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That is one gorgeous looking pound cake! Great use for ruby reds too, one of my favorite citrus fruits! Happy New Year!
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Amen to that! I’d rather a mouthful of a proper satisfying dessert, than a whole serve of a no-fat no-sugar substitute.
I’d love to try this with some fresh blood oranges in Australia. Delicious!
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What a great idea!! I have honestly never even had grapefruit in any kind of dessert but I think it would be amazing
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i enjoy lemon pound cake to a degree, but i’ll always, always prefer grapefruit-flavored treats. very nice put-on-the-pounds cake.
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Can’t believe I have never made a TX grapefruit baked treat! This is an awesome recipe – citrus sounds sooo good in January and I do believe pound cake can get us through the cold dark days ahead!!!
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I’m not a huge fan of grapefruit in their natural state, but I love them in baked goods. Can’t wait to make this!
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Gimme butter! Oooh and grapefruit anything is winner in my book!
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Oh, I just love the idea of using grapefruit in bread! I’ll have to pick up some more so that I can try this!
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This bread looks truly amazing.
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i just picked up a big bag of grapefruits so decided to search for recipes to make use of these ruby beautites and i came upon your site! this pound cake looks divine can’t wait to make it! thanks for sharing!
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[...] Ruby Red Pound Cake from Dessert for Two [...]
I made this a couple days ago, substituting blood orange for grapefruit, it turned out beautifully. Great recipe!
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