Pomegranate Christmas Cake

This year, I’ve made it a point to get started on my Christmas baking as soon as possible.  Normally, I figure out a way to travel during the holidays, bouncing from the homes of friends and family, eating too much, and sleeping in too late.  But, with the impending deadline of my general exams this January (that’s right readers, I am also a doctoral candidate in English at LSU), I’ve decided to lay low this holiday season as I study, read, and prepare for my favorite holiday (and exams) wearing these pajamas.  I may be engrossing myself in Victorian literature, but who said I couldn’t do it in satiny pink-striped style?To start a new tradition, Eve and I are sending out our first ever holiday cards to all the people we wish we could see this year.  I’m not one for dressing up dogs (I often think it’s a bit “cruel”), but Eve earned her stint as my holiday reindeer this week after chewing on a pair of my favorite shoes.  Have you ever seen punishment look so cute?

And these evolving traditions don’t end here.  I’ve developed a recipe for my new favorite Christmas cake that I have no doubt I will be making until I’m 80.  And then my children will be making until they’re 80, and then their children…and in the hopes that the world doesn’t end and you can still buy pomegranates, so will their children.

This snow-white vanilla cake incorporates a combination of butter cream and cream cheese icing with ruby red pomegranates as an ever-so-decadent take on holiday cooking.  It’s as tasty as it is beautiful and I just love how the red seeds glisten on the snowy white icing.

 Pictured here: Pomegranate Christmas Cake filled and decorated with fresh pomegranate seeds.  A lovely, healthy, and seasonal way to bring life to a white Christmas cake.

However, I can’t take all the credit for my design.  My cake was inspired by the beautiful, artistic, and seasonal stylings of one Heather Baird over at Sprinkle Bakes here.  If you haven’t looked into Heather’s site, you should do so immediately.  It’s often hard to believe that her food is actually edible and not just art.

Heather’s “Merry and Bright Christmas Cake” really takes cake decorating to another level showing just how much cooking is a creative medium.  Although Heather’s recipe and my own aren’t identical, I feel compelled to share her stylings with you nonetheless.

Now that I think of it, this may be the first time I’ve ever made a dish that takes a cue from Heather’s blog, although I’ve been trolling her gorgeous photos for months now and will be one of the first to buy her new cookbook.  A Christmas with puppy reindeers, snow white Christmas cakes, silk pajamas, and my favorite food bloggers publishing their first cookbooks? I love starting new traditions.

Pomegranate Christmas Cake

My take on Heather Baird’s variation incorporates the same concept–vanilla, with vanilla–but minus a few ingredients to keep the cake simple and clean.  I’ve created a larger batter involving almond extract and developed a larger helping of frosting with subtle hints of cream cheese.

Ingredients:

—Cake—

* 1 1/2 cups milk

* 9 egg whites

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 1 teaspoon almond extract

* 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

* 2 1/2 cups sugar

* 6 teaspoons baking powder

* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

* 1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature

—Icing—

* 6 cups confectioner’s sugar

* 3 sticks butter, softened

* 2 (8 oz) packages regular cream cheese,room temperature

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 1 teaspoon almond extract

* Pomegranate Seeds, to garnish

* Vanilla Fondant with Green Food Coloring, optional

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine dry mixture: flour, baking powder, and salt.  Cream wet mixture–sugar, butter, vanilla and almond extract, milk, and egg whites.  Slowly add dry mixture to wet one until the batter is fully incorporated making sure to scrape down your bowl for any leftover dry ingredients.

2.) Grease three baking sheets with butter and a good bit of flour.  Pour batter evenly between the three pans.  Bake cakes for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

3.) Prepare Icing: cream butter, cream cheese, vanilla and almond extract with confectioner’s sugar making sure to add 1 cup confectioner’s sugar at a time.  I like to use the medium-fast speed on my Kitchenaid standing mixer so that all of the fat molecules are incorporated smoothly.

4.) Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely.   Plate bottom layer, ice with frosting, and sprinkle with a  little less than 1/3 of your pomegranate seeds.  Add layers two and three and repeat this step.  When you get to the top layer, sprinkle pomegranate seeds around the sides of the cake and any choice decoration on top.  For the green leaves pictured here, you may use any store bought pre-made fondant converting it to green with food coloring.  I prefer the Fondarific Vanilla at Amazon.

Enjoy!Makes 12-15 very thick and tall slices.

———————————

This recipe was re-published for my “Fresh Ideas” Column for Louisiana’s state newspaper, The Advocate, on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011.  You can read the reprint here.

–Helana Brigman