SOUR CREAM-RUM-PECAN POUND CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Pound cake is quintessentially Southern.  It is a versatile cake that lends itself to many interpretations and uses.  When made properly, pound cake is light and airy and a delight to eat.  I’ve made this Southern Living recipe twice:  once with white sugar and once with a combo of white and brown sugar.  Both versions were good, but the one with brown sugar had a caramel undertone that I particularly liked.  SL’s recipe is a plain pound cake.  The pecans and rum flavoring are mine. 

Orange-Glazed Pecan Sour Cream Pound Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Elvis Presley’s Favorite Pound Cake are two pound cakes that I rate slightly higher.

Sour Cream-Rum-Pecan Pound Cake with Chocolate Ganache Adapted from Southern Living Magazine Rating:  9 out of 10 Click for PRINTABLE PAGE

INGREDIENTS:  1 cup broken pecans 8 oz. sour cream, regular or light 1/2 tsp. baking soda 2-1/2 cups sugar 1 cup (8 oz.) unsalted butter, soft 6 large eggs, room temperature 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp. Morton kosher salt or table salt 1 tsp. vanilla (I used my homemade vanilla extract.) 1 Tbsp. rum + 1/4 cup rum for brushing on cake Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan.  Sprinkle pecans evenly over bottom.  Stir baking soda into sour cream; set aside.  In bowl of stand mixer, beat sugar and butter at low speed 6 minutes.  Beat at medium speed till light and fluffy, about 4 additional minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, on low speed.  Sift together flour and salt; add alternately with sour cream, on low speed, beginning and ending with flour.  Stir in vanilla and 1 Tbsp. rum.  Spoon batter carefully over pecans.    Run a knife through the batter to dissolve air bubbles, and rap bottom of pan on counter twice.  Place pan in cold oven.  Bake at 325F for 1 hour, 30 minutes, or till a wooden pick inserted in center returns with just a few crumbs.  Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn cake out onto wire rack to finish cooling.    Brush warm cake, top and sides, with remaining 1/4 cup rum.    Drizzle or cover with chocolate ganache.  The ganache below is made with a Chocolove Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate bar.  The chunks in the ganache are bits of orange peel. To make ganache, heat 1/4 cup heavy cream over medium heat till steaming.  Off heat and add 1 cup chopped  bittersweet chocolate.  Stir till smooth and use immediately.