Recipe: Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Moscato Glaze

Recently, I wanted to make something simple — not laden with chips and nuts and streusel and such, but just fairly basic. A cake, perhaps, to serve with afternoon tea ... but dressed up just a little bit, maybe with a glaze. So I baked a lovely pound cake, substituting brown sugar for the white to give more depth of flavor. And then, instead of drizzling a standard milk-based glaze over the top, I decided to use some lovely sweet white wine instead to flavor the icing.

Cake (slightly modified from a recipe found at www.tasteofhome.com):

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8x4-inch glass loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in the eggs and the vanilla until well combined.

Beat in the flour, baking powder and salt just until combined.

Spread batter in the prepared pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20 minutes, then remove from pan; let cool on a rack.

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons Moscato

Directions

 Whisk together the glaze ingredients, then drizzle over the pound cake. Let the glaze set completely before cutting and serving.

Makes 12 servings.

This recipe was written by Mary Bilyeu and originally posted on AnnArbor.com on Oct. 4, 2011.