I picked up my copy of The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook by Jean Hewitt at some point in the late 1970's while living in Tucson, Arizona. It joined the shelf beside a little bread book from a Safeway store checkout display, and the first cookbook I had purchased after moving away from home, Betty Crocker. That was in 1974. Here it is 2019, and I am still baking my favorite cake recipe from the Natural Foods Cookbook, Whole Wheat Poundcake. Through the years, I have played with this recipe, often adding different inclusions like nuts, chips, seeds, homemade jams and jellies, chocolate chips, carob chips and using a variety of grains (this one has brown rice flour and buckwheat).
Organic Blueberry Lemon Whole Wheat Sourdough with Rose Petals is my latest bit of play with this recipe. For this experiment I included my wholegrain sourdoughstarter (whole wheat, brown rice, buckwheat and rye) in making a half batch of the recipe. In this half recipe, I used 2 eggs, ½ cup of sourdough starter, ¾ cup almond milk, 1 tablespoon of rose petal sugar, (organic cane sugar with organic red rose petals – these have been infused for more than a year so the sugar is very full of the rose scent), 1 table spoon Chia seed and 1 tablespoon of crushed red rose petals. Using two baby bundt pans, I filled each with half of a regular quantity of batter and 2 mini bundt pans filled as I normally would. Each of these was cut horizontally and spread with Quilter’s Comfort’s Blueberry Lemon Jam. The mini bundt had their holes filled with the jam. Icing was made using cream cheese blended with the Blueberry Lemon jam and liberally applied. The jam was very chunky with blueberries, so the icing is pretty fruity lumpy. Yum.
This cake may appear dense looking, but it is light and melts in the mouth! Because I am playing with the inclusions, the next time I bake this, I will reduce the almond milk, leave out the chia, and as usual change up on the jellies. Perhaps next time, I will use Quilter’s Comfort’s Rosehip Cranberry Jam, or really go out there with a Mango Rose Chutney! I will make these changes and watch how they are reflected in the whole grain texture.
Note: Please only use organic roses in cooking to avoid pesticide poisoning.
Enjoy my twist on the poundcake with a steaming cup of Quilter’s Comfort’s I LOVE Me tea! May these teas hold the intention to support your self love in healthy ways. May the vibrational intention of I LOVE Me be with you in every sip!
Much love in all,
Patricia
