Monday, November 9, 2009

POM for Mom


I wanted to make a sweet with the POM I received. The thing that is nice about using POM in sweets is that it balances out the sugar with its tartness. I used it before when I made these petits fours.

I made the cake for my Mom's birthday. My Mom is a salt of the earth kind of gal. She was raised on a farm during the Great Depression. She has a lot of knowledge about farming, canning, cooking and well my Mom is a walking encyclopedia- for sure. I call her with every question and every problem. Yup, I call her a lot.

This is one of the stories I like to tell about my Mom when she was growing up. Her and her brothers and sisters were playing out in the field. They were digging by a stone wall. Buried there in the dirt were some bottles. They took them out and were sharing a drink of the liquid in the bottles. These bottles must have been buried there during Prohibition. Well, being a tiny little slink of a girl, she became very intoxicated by the alcohol. They all were. Being so drunk and dizzy they were unable to get back to the house so easily. Luckily for them it was around five o'clock and the cows would be heading back to the barn for the night. So these smart children grabbed some cow tails and hitched a ride home.

One of my Mother's favorite cakes is Italian Cream Cake. I found several recipes and tweaked it to become this cake recipe below.
Italian Cream Cake with Pomegranate
Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness

the cake:
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 eggs, separated
2 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 easpoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine buttermilk and soda in a small bowl and set aside. Cream sugar, butter, shortening and salt in a large bowl. Add egg yolks, one at a time. Add buttermilk alternating with flour. Stir in vanilla. Beat egg whites in a seperate bowl and fold into batter. Line and grease two 9 inch round cake pans and bake for about 25 minutes.

the filling:

16 ounces mascarpone
4 tablespoons POM syrup**
2 tablespoons PAMA (pomegranate liquor)
1 cup confectioners sugar
the seeds of one vanilla bean

Whip all ingredients together until throughly combined.

the frosting:

2 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon pomegranate syrup
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin*
2 tablespoons cold water
1/4 cup sugar

In a small bowl combine gelatin with cold water and let sit for a mement. Then heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to disolve it. Remove and let cool to room temp.

In a cold metal bowl whip the cream until it forms bubbles, sprinkle in sugar and add pomegranate syrup. When the mixture is just about to form stiff peaks add in the gelatin all at once. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

*The gelatin helps to stabilize the whipped cream. If you are serving the cake the same day your really don't need to do the gelatin at all.

**Pomegranate syrup: combine 2 cups POM juice with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1/3 cup sugar. Boil and reduce to half

13 comments:

grace said...

well, this is outstanding! excellent cake, lori—i love everything from the lovely hue of the filling to the tart tang the pomegranate provides. happy birthday to your ma!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Happy birthday, Lori's Mom!

Lori love the story! I bet you have quite a few good ones.

Thanks for sharing the recipe. I've hear wonderful things about Italian cream cake and have wanted to try making one.
~ingrid

Mary Bergfeld said...

What a wonderful birthday cake. This looks elegant and delicious. Very nicely done.

Katy ~ said...

I think Italian Cream Cake is one of three favorite cakes that I just could not live without (carrot and butter sharing the honors, grins). Your cake is beautifully presented. Delicious use of the POM.

Happy birthday to your Mom. Many happy returns of the day!

dina (Lucas' mom) said...

that looks amazing....and intimidating!

Kiara S said...

Oh my gosh, that slice of cake look DELICIOUS.

Considering that it's the season, I'm definitely gonna have to make some pomegranate desserts...this is making its way to the top of my list XD

Anonymous said...

Great looking cake!

savorysweetlife said...

I wish I could have a slice of this cake. I've never tried pomegranate filling but would love to. Thank you for sharing your recipe.

Alice

PS: Your cake is absolutely beautiful - very Martha Stewart!

hungryandfrozen said...

That cake looks amazing! The filling sounds sooo good and I love the mix of flavours. Your mother sounds pretty awesome too :)

Donna-FFW said...

Amazing cake!! I love the thick layer of frosting in the middle. Brilliant use of POM.

PG said...

Cute story. How did your mom like the cake in the end?

Murasaki Shikibu said...

The 'prohibition' story is hilarious. Kind of dangerous to drink stuff from bottles buried in the earth though!

kat said...

Love the pink stripe in that cake!