Amaretto-Soaked Pound Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

This is a moist vanilla cake with rich chocolate ganache and a delicate flavour of bitter almonds. Photos: Sriram Narayanan

There is always that one recipe that a cook favours above all the rest. Partly, because s(he) has made it so often, that it is now easily summoned from memory; and partly, because of its simplicity and assured great taste, every time it is made.

My mother has her ambatvaran, a spicy-sweet-sour dal that is tempered with a sputtering tadka of crushed garlic flakes, mustard seeds and curry leaves, among other things. One aunt makes a mean masale bhat, a rice pulao with a flavoursome blend of Indian spices and fried cashew-nuts  Another aunt has a way with fish curries that are soul satisfying to say the least, when paired with steamed rice.

As for me, I do cakes. That's my thing. And my favourite go-to recipe is the simple pound cake. It was called so because it used to be made with a pound each of all ingredients - butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Of course, you can make this cake with any quantity you choose.

Moreover, to my mind, there is nothing more versatile than a pound cake. By itself, it makes for a lovely teacake, with a deep brown crust and a golden yellow sponge. Take the cake up a notch on the posh scale by brushing it with a lime juice and sugar syrup when hot and you have zingy lemon drizzle cake. It is also a great foundation for most vanilla cupcakes, ice-cream cakes, and trifle puddings.

However, my favourite way with the pound cake is this. Brush the cake, rather generously, with some amaretto (almond liqueur) or brandy syrup, layer and frost on some dark chocolate ganache, and top it up with a few chocolate dipped nuts for decoration.

What you will get is a fancy, grown up birthday cake, or a nice party dessert for a crowd. This is a moist vanilla cake with a rich chocolate frosting and a delicate bitter almond flavour. If you want to make this cake for just that special someone, simply halve the recipe.

I took this amaretto soaked, chocolate frosted cake to a friend's home for a Christmas lunch last weekend, where everyone tucked into it, including a 4-year-old, who turned hyperactive after eating some off her mother's plate (don't know if it was the amaretto or the sugar rush).

Amaretto-Soaked Pound Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

Cake:

200 gm butter (softened)

150 gm fine sugar

4 eggs

200 gm self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract or seeds scraped from 2 vanilla beans

Amaretto syrup:

Dissolve 50 gm fine sugar into 125 ml amaretto or brandy

Frosting:

Dark cooking chocolate 250 gm

40 ml amaretto or brandy

¾ cup water (or cream, for a richer version)

Chocolate dipped nuts, for decoration

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius. Grease an 8-inch round cake tin with butter, dust with flour and set aside. Mix the baking powder and flour and set aside. Using an electric beater or mixer, cream the butter until pale and fluffy. Mix in sugar and beat well. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition. Beat the mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Gently fold in the flour, bit by bit, with a spatula. 

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for around 40 minutes, or until a small knife inserted into the cake centre comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the tin when still warm. Use a large knife to slice it horizontally into two layers. Do not worry if the layers are not neat or the equal size. Spoon the amaretto syrup over both the cake layers.

While the cake is baking, melt the dark chocolate in a microwave proof bowl. Add the water/cream and amaretto/brandy to the melted chocolate. Leave the ganache to cool to a spreadable consistency until the cake layers are ready to be frosted.

Now, using a flat spatula or palette knife, spread a large dollop of cooled ganache between two amaretto-soaked, cake layers. Use the remaining ganache to cover and frost the cake’s top and sides.

Top the cake with the chocolate dipped nuts to decorate.