Toasted Hazelnut Pound Cake

We store nuts in our basement fridge, as our copious Costco-sized supply would fill up an entire shelf in the kitchen. In addition to the featured nut in today’s cake, we have walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, cashews, and peanuts. Taking a break from using seasonal fruit, I whipped up this pound cake and boy, was it ever good.

The recipe comes from my favourite baking book, In The Sweet Kitchen. Beyond the standard pound cake method of creaming fat and sugars, and alternating the dry and liquid ingredients, this recipe includes both ground, toasted hazelnuts, as well as hazelnut oil. Our supermarket sold this in small, dark containers; if you come across it, it’s well worth buying to really impart a rich nutty aroma.

Unlike many pound cakes, which are usually baked in loaf pans, this one goes into the oven in a round springform. I didn’t even bother with that (they’re a pain to clean), and just used a regular cake tin, sprayed and lined with parchment.

This cake went fast when I took it to work. It also disappeared quite quickly at home, devoured by my children, who added slices of donut peaches to plate their own little dessert.

Do note that if you have one of the earlier editions of the cookbook, the directions omit any mention of the ground nuts. By the time I noticed, I had almost finished stirring the batter together, and I incorporated them at the end. It makes more sense to stir the nuts in with the flour mixture, as described in the version I’ve linked above.