Congratulations to Peggy Logan of Chester, Va., who won the Virginia's Best Pound Cake Contest sponsored by the Virginia Egg Council.
Some of you might recall that I recently ran a recipe for Cinnamon Pound Cake that was created by Donna Manthey of Salem. Donna, whose cake won first place at the Salem Fair this year, did not place at the state fair in Richmond, but her recipe has so far been one of the most requested recipes I've run.
Clearly, Southwest Virginians love their pound cake!
Logan's winning recipe is for a basic pound cake with a touch of lemon extract, but I'm told the judges were awed by the cake's richness and fineness of crumb. A delicious, simple pound cake can be the basis for a number of easy desserts, from strawberry shortcake to pound cake with chocolate sauce or fresh peaches.
The second and third place winners also got my attention, however. Second place went to Elizabeth Cunningham of Midland for her Orange Blossom Pound Cake, and third place was awarded to Rachel Kelly of Purcellville, who entered Apple Pound Cake with Cinnamon Apple Glaze.
Oh, MAN! An essence of orange or big chunks of apple in a pound cake? I can't decide which one to make first!

First Place -- Pound Cake
Peggy Logan, Chester

3 cups sugar
½ pound butter, softened
½ cup cooking oil (vegetable, canola)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract
6 eggs, beaten
3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325˚. Grease and flour (or use baker’s spray) a fluted pan or angel food cake pan.
Beat sugar, butter, cooking oil, salt and baking powder until fluffy (it will look very light yellow). Add buttermilk, vanilla and lemon extract and beaten eggs. Beat this on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Fold in the flour on low speed until well combined. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Cool in pan. Turn onto serving plate once cool.

2nd Place -- Orange Blossom Pound Cake
Elizabeth Cunningham, Midland

6 eggs
3 cups sugar
1 cup mayonnaise (not salad dressing)
½ cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons orange extract
3 ½ cups unsifted all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large whole orange, washed, cut into chunks
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

Grease and flour a 12- cup fluted cake pan or two 9x5” loaf pans. Preheat oven to 325˚.
Beat eggs, sugar, mayonnaise, butter and orange extract on high speed, for about 4 min. or until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Set aside. Process orange in a food processor into a puree – peel and all! Reserve 3 tablespoons of orange puree for glaze. Stir remaining orange puree into buttermilk and mix well.
Add flour mixture alternately with orange mixture to egg mixture, beating on low speed of mixer, just until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan (s) and bake on center rack for 1 hour and 10 minutes (50 – 60 min. for loaf pans) or until tooth pick comes out with moist crumbs – DO NOT underbake. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Remove from pan.

Orange Glaze
1½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp. almond extract
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons reserved orange puree (see above)
Beat all ingredients together to make glaze. Spread on cake while it is still warm.

Garnish:
Chocolate bar – broken into pieces
Sliced almonds
Fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon white icing
Melt chocolate in custard cup in microwave. Pour into a plastic sandwich bag. Cut tip off of one corner of baggie and pipe branches onto cake.
Dot icing on cake for blossom centers and arrange almonds around them (make about 8 ‘blossoms’ on top and 8 around the bottom). Arrange fresh mint leaves around blossoms.

3rd Place -- Apple Pound Cake with Cinnamon Apple Glaze
Rachel Kelly, Purcellville

3 1/3 cups flour (all purpose)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
3 1/3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract or ½ tsp. vanilla bean paste
2/3 cup apple butter (no sugar added)
1½ cups peeled, diced apple (golden delicious)

Preheat oven to 350˚ (25˚ less if pan is darker colored). Spray 10 x 3 ½” fluted pan with non-stick baking spray.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended. Add vanilla and apple butter. Mix in dry ingredients. Blend in diced apples. Pour batter into pan until two-thirds full. (If you have leftover batter, bake this in a small loaf pan – adjusting time. Bake for about 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool for about 20 minutes, remove from pan. Drizzle with cinnamon apple glaze. Cool before serving.

Cinnamon Apple Glaze
½ cup thawed apple juice concentrate
1 tsp. cornstarch
½ tsp. cinnamon
3 Tbs. heavy cream
Blend all ingredients together. Heat over low heat until sauce thickens. Drizzle over cake

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• Posted by Lindsey Nair in Cooking contests
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