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Sparkling Cider Pound Cake
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sparkling apple cider

Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons sparkling apple cider

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom of a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper; grease paper.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with cider, beating well after each addition.

Transfer to prepared pan. Bake 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

In a small bowl, mix glaze ingredients until smooth; spoon over cake, allowing it to flow over sides.

Per Serving: 306 calories, 13 g fat (8 g sat. fat), 83 mg chol, 156 mg sodium, 46 g carb, trace fiber, 3 g pro. (12 Servings per loaf)

Brad’s friend, Lynn, was coming up from Tennessee to help him around the farm the other day and I wanted to have some type of dessert for them after their lunch break. I was hoping to find a recipe that would be quick, easy, and delicious. I also didn’t want a big dessert because I didn’t want it hanging around our house after Lynn left.

I started my search for the perfect dessert and found this recipe for Sparkling Cider Pound Cake that I’d torn from the October 2013 issue of Taste of Home magazine. I knew this dessert was meant to be because earlier in the day I’d opened a bottle of sparking apple cider which I’d found at the back of our food cabinet.

After the butter had softened, I turned on the oven and started making the cake batter. I creamed the sugar and butter,
added each egg one at a time and then mixed the dry ingredients in a different bowl. After whisking the dry ingredients together, I dumped them into the butter, sugar and eggs.

Then I read the recipe to see how much sparkling apple cider to add and noticed that I was supposed to mix the dry ingredients alternately with the apple cider; OOPS! So, I just stirred the batter a little before adding half of the sparking cider, stirred a little more and added the remaining cider. The cake batter appeared to be fine and it was well mixed.

I greased my loaf pan, cut a piece of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan, greased the paper, and then poured in the cake batter.
Into the oven the pan went and I set the timer for 40 minutes. When the timer sounded the cake was obviously still wet so I let it bake another 15 minutes; which is 5 minutes longer than the recipe calls for, but the toothpick didn’t come out clean until the cake had baked a total of 55 minutes.

The cake cooled in the pan exactly 10 minutes before I removed it and placed it on a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Once the cake was completely cooled I mixed up the glaze, which was super simple to do. I poured the glaze all over the top and it ran over the sides, just like the recipe said.

Before heading to bed, I put the pound cake on a cake stand and covered it with the domed lid. We were all ready for Lynn to show up the next day.

Saturday morning arrived and I could not wait to test this cake; plus, I wanted to make sure it was good before serving it to a friend. I sliced into it and had a piece for breakfast.

I did share one bite with Brad and we both thought it was pretty good. I make a sour cream pound cake and it’s my all-time favorite cake; which is hard to beat when you want pound cake.

However, this recipe passes the Nailed It test. It was quick and easy to prepare. And it met the requirement of not leaving us with a lot of cake when Lynn left (of course I sent some home with him). I will definitely hang on to this recipe and file it away with the rest of my self-made cook book recipes.

Food columnist  Sarah Condley wrote this recipe/column for the Winchester Sun.