Rarely do I see a recipe on a website/blog and want to make it immediately. First, I have to make sure I have all the ingredients. If not, I have to make a run to the store and get whatever I’m missing. Then, I also have to think about how much time it will take and if I want to postpone it til the weekend. But I saw this post on Dorie Greenspan’s blog for the “simplest loaf cake.” The list of ingredients was short and I happened to have them all on hand. And the bf was at home with nothing to do, so he got the job of actually making it!
Dorie recommends serving a chocolate sauce over it, but with us being on the verge of summer, we decided to top it with whipped cream and berries. We cut up some strawberries, sprinkled some sugar over it, and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to let the syrup form. The combination was just like a strawberry shortcake, and probably the easiest one I’ve (we’ve) ever made from scratch. The cake itself was everything you’d want from a pound cake.
What I like best is that it uses canola oil as opposed to butter. I just have an aversion to using a recipe with lots of butter in it. (Except with cookies…2 sticks of butter split up among 2 dozen cookies–doesn’t seem as bad, so long as I limit myself to a cookie a day!) Also, canola oil has health benefits – it’s low in saturated fat and it’s high in healthy unsaturated fats. I’m not sure how using oil as opposed to butter affects the texture and quality of bakery items. But you will definitely not miss the butter in Dorie’s recipe. We also used low fat sour cream to reduce the fat content even further. Check out this recipe from Epicurious for a Lemon Loaf Cake and look at its ingredient list! Too bad they don’t give you the nutritional info, like Dorie/Parade does. You probably wouldn’t want to know!
