Avocado Pound Cake

Warning: The following post has a lotttt of green in it.  Brilliant, bright avocado green.  Maybe I went a little overboard with the green spatula and the green bowl, but it all matched so well that i just had to do it!

So I know that i may have already lost some of you simply by the title of this post.  You’re probably thinking that it sounds gross.  I don’t blame you…Avocado?  Pound Cake?  Green pound cake.  You inner child is saying “ewwww”, i know i know.  But this pound cake is pretty damn good if you ask me, or the other 10 people who got to try it.  We’ve all heard the saying that we “eat with our eyes first” and I was actually totally intrigued by the bright green color that this cake turned out to be.  It’s actually what drew me to making this recipe in the first place.  It comes from Joy the Baker (of course) and after an unfortunate mistake, my grandmother ended up with an entire gigantic box of avocado’s after her yearly fireworks party (someoneeee forgot to make the guacamole).

There is a definite avocado presence in this pound cake.  At first bite, it just taste’s like pound cake, and then you get subtle hints of that unique avocado flavor, oh and if you forget there’s avocado in there, just take a look…

…it’s bright freakin green.

And for you Avocado lovers out there who intend on going out and buying some as a result of my delicious inspiration check out Kitchen Cartel’s Facebook page to see the link ofwhat I made for breakfast yesterday :]

Avocado Pound Cake

Adapted from Joy the Baker: Makes 2 9x4x3 loafs

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

• 3 cups sugar

• 4 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

• flesh of 1 1/2 ripe avocados, just over a cup to a cup and a half of avocado, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two loaf pans and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.  Set the four eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature while you beat the butter and sugar.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened and pliable.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add the avocado and beat another minute to incorporate.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg.  Beat in vanilla extract.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture.  Beat just until combined.

Divide the dough between the two loaf pans and place in the oven.  Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F.   Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.  I checked my cakes every ten minutes or so after the 30 minute mark.   Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.