How to Make the Perfect Grapefruit Pound Cake
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So, big news… I’m pregnant with baby number 2! For the last few months, nothing but grapefruit has sounded good. Then, one day, our fridge decided to stop keeping things cold. From that, I was able to hone the perfect grapefruit pound cake.
What does that even mean, though? The perfect grapefruit pound cake is a combination of zest bespeckled loaf cake a zippy grapefruit drizzle to soak in more flavor, and an easy, crisp glaze to finish.
Making the Grapefruit Pound Cake
The pound cake itself is fairly simple. For the perfect texture, you just want to make sure you’re mixing your ingredients in correctly. First, you need to cream your butter and sugar very thoroughly. This means letting the mixer beat it for 5 minutes. Set a timer.
You’ll notice I say scrape down the bowl a lot in this recipe. It’s super important to make sure that your ingredients are fully mixed, and nothing is stuck to the sides of the bowl.
So, scrape down the bowl after you’ve creamed the butter and sugar, and then after you’ve mixed in each egg. And you’ll scrape the bowl down once again after you add the vanilla and grapefruit zest.
Finally, you need to sift in the dry ingredients and fold them in (you guessed it, scraping down the bowl as you go). Bake in your prepped loaf pan for an hour or so.
The Beauty of a Grapefruit Drizzle
While your cake is baking in the oven, you’ll want to prepare your drizzle. This is a simple two-ingredient syrup. All you have to do is bring grapefruit juice and sugar to a simmer until the sugar is totally dissolved. This will take about 5 minutes.
The only other step is to let it cool a little bit. By “a little bit,” I mean, you want it about the temperature of a warm bath. It should be safe to touch, but only just barely. Time your drizzle properly by starting when there are 5 minutes left on your cake timer.
Once the cake is out of the oven, it needs 10 minutes to cool down before you pour your drizzle on. By the time the cake is cooled enough, so is your drizzle. Pour your drizzle evenly over the cake top, and let that beauty soak in.
What’s the Point of Pouring Sugar Syrup on Cake?
You may be wondering why you would even bother pouring syrup on a cake. In this case, the syrup amps up the grapefruit flavor in our perfect grapefruit pound cake.
In general, though, the purpose of simple syrup on the cake is to encourage and maintain moisture in the crumb. A perfectly moist cake holds its shape when you cut it, so you’ll often find professional cakers using syrup on cakes being carved. A well-flavored syrup can also amp up your cake.
The Icing on the Grapefruit Pound Cake
Once your cake is fully cooled, it’s ready to ice. The icing is another simple 2-ingredient glaze with powdered sugar and more grapefruit juice. You do want it to set before you serve it or the whole experience will be off. The goal is for it to be crisp when you cut through like a glazed donut.
Now, if you are desperate for your icing to look really pretty, you can use less juice. This will result in a thicker icing that you can pipe with a little more control. I would add grapefruit zest to this, though, otherwise, the flavor won’t be at the same level.
What You’ll Need to Make Cake
There’s a pretty decent little list of tools I like to use to make this cake. Here’s my kit:
- Stand Mixer with whisk attachment
- 10×5 Loaf Pan
- Cooling rack
- Rubber spatula
- Offset spatula optional
- Small saucepan
Comment below if you have questions, concerns, or opinions. And tag me @ellejayathome on Instagram or Twitter if you share pictures from any of my recipes. I love to hear from you!
Grapefruit Pound Cake
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with whisk attachment
- 9×5 Loaf Pan
- Cooling rack
- Rubber spatula
- Offset spatula optional
- Small saucepan
Ingredients
Grapefruit Pound Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1¼ cup granulated sugar divided, plus 2 Tbsp for coating pan
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp grapefruit zest
- 2 cups all purpose flour sifted
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp pink himalayan salt
- ¾ cup grapefruit juice divided, room temperature
Grapefruit Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 2 Tbsp grapefruit juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter your favorite loaf pan and coat with the extra 2 Tbsp of granulated sugar (see recipe notes). Set pan aside.
- Cream together the beaten butter with 1 cup of sugar until it looks fluffy (5 minutes). Scrape down the bowl.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until fully combined. Scrape down the bowl between each egg. Add in the vanilla and grapefruit zest.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift half the mixture into your grapefruit cake batter. Fold it in gently with a rubber spatula.
- Pour in ¼ cup of the grapefruit juice. Stir until just combined.
- Sift in the remaining dry ingredients, and fold until no dry spots are left. Make sure to scrape the batter away from the bottom to check that nothing sank.
- Pour in another ¼ cup of grapefruit juice, and stir to combine.
- Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan.
- Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, combine ¼ cup of granulated sugar with ¼ cup of grapefruit juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved (about 5 minutes), and remove from heat to cool slightly.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then pour the syrup over the whole top of the cake. Let the syrup soak in, and cool the cake in the pan completely.
- Use an offset spatula to go around the edges to help release the cake. Set on a wire cooling rack.
- For the glaze, combine 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 Tbsp grapefruit juice, and pour this over the completely cooled cake. Allow the icing to set before serving.
