Circle B Kitchen

It’s Two-Fer day here at the Circle B Kitchen! Yup, I’m giving you two amazing, outstanding, delicious recipes just cuz you’re so great. Firstly, you’re going to be getting one of the great pound cake recipes of all time. I’m not kidding here. I never was all that into pound cake before, but this is a total game-changer.

It’s made with yogurt, and copious amounts of vegetable oil, and I’m not sure I’m a gifted enough writer to describe how moist, how tender, how utterly and extremely super good this cake is. All by itself it’s worth the price of admission. I don’t really know what that means, but you get the idea.

But wait, there’s more! We’re also going to make an amazing dessert pannini by taking a couple of slices of that ridiculously good pound cake, spreading it with Nutella and then grilling it and sprinkling it with powdered sugar. Oh my ever lovin goodness.

Yes, these panini are awesome, they’re easy, and they’re meant to make your eyes roll into the back of your head. Well, not permanently, but in a good way.

This whole thing started when I was watching Mario Batali make a nutella panini on his Ciao America show. He just used baguette slices and it looked really good, but I thought, why not use a couple slices of pound cake instead of the bread? So I went hunting for a good pound cake recipe and came across this one on Epicurious. Little did I know that I was going to fall so hard for this cake. I was quite happy eating it right out of the pan, but once I slathered on that nutella and grilled it, there was no turning back.

Yes, people these are good. How could they not be? There’s nothing fancy or complicated here, just simple, straightforward, honest-to-goodness, messy deliciousness.

Nutella Pound Cake Panini

Click here for a printable recipe

For each sandwich you will need:

2 slices of pound cake

Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread

powdered sugar

Heat a grill pan over medium high heat. While that's heating, spread a couple of tablespoons of the Nutella on one of the pound cake slices, and top with the other slice of cake. Place on the heated grill and cook until you have nice grill marks on the cake and flip to the other side. When the chocolate is melting and beginning to ooze out between the slices, remove from the grill and let cool for a few minutes. While still warm sprinkle the panini with powdered sugar.

Yogurt Pound Cake

Recipe courtesy of Bon Apetit

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon (packed) finely grated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup lemon, orange, or grapefruit marmalade (for glaze)

1 teaspoon water

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Generously butter 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2-inch metal loaf pan. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Combine yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon peel, and vanilla in large bowl; whisk until well blended. Gradually whisk in dry ingredients. Using rubber spatula, fold in oil. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Place pan on baking sheet.

Place cake on baking sheet in oven and bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 5 minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Turn cake out onto rack. Turn cake upright on rack and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap and store at room temperature.)

Stir marmalade and 1 teaspoon water in small saucepan over medium heat until marmalade melts. Brush hot mixture over top of cake. Let glaze cool and set. Cut cake crosswise into slices.

Makes 8 servings.