While we didn’t end up with an overall photo of our Easter table (apologies!), we had a simple, yet delicious, menu this year. Grandma provided the traditional ham while Mom was in charge of her carrot soufflé specialty. Hayley brought a Smitten Kitchen creation- a delicious Asian-inspired salad with a garlic miso dressing that was SO good and I was in charge of the dinner rolls and dessert. I pawned off the rolls to my boyfriend, who can magically create delicious bread without a recipe, and I decided to make a white-chocolate lemon pound cake for dessert. The carrot cake wasn’t even missed!

This pound cake has a subtle sweetness that is complimented by a fresh raspberry sauce. I love making cakes in Bundt form for a few reasons… 1. it’s different and fun, 2. I find things cook more quickly and evenly in a Bundt pan, and 3. it makes cutting evenly sized slices so much easier!! I first tasted this cake in its lavender form from Kate Shaffer’s Maine cookbook, Desserted. She has created an entire recipe book of chocolate- it is amazing and we highly recommend it.

Adapted from Desserted by Kate Schaffer.

White-Chocolate Lemon Pound Cake:

1/2 c whole milk

1 T lemon zest (plus a little more, if you over zested like I did a bit!)

1 vanilla bean, split with the seeds scraped out

1 stick of butter

3/4 c sugar

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

4 eggs, room temp

1 t vanilla extract

1 T lemon juice, fresh squeezed

8 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled

2 c flour

Raspberry Sauce: mash raspberries with sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until it bubbles and thickens to your desired consistency.

1/2 pint fresh raspberries

1/4 c sugar

1 T orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a Bundt pan.

In a small saucepan over medium heat combine milk, lemon zest, and the split and scraped vanilla pod and seeds. Because of the lemon I didn’t want to let the mixture boil so I heated it just until it started to show signs of simmering bubbles and shut it off. Allow the mixture to cool on the burner and stir occasionally. Remove the vanilla pod once cooled.

In a stand mixer, or with hand beaters, cream the butter until soft and then add the sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the lemon zest milk mixture, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Mix until just combined. Pour in the cooled, melted white-chocolate and mix, again, until just combined.

Finally, add the flour all at once and beat until incorporated. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan and bake for 30 minutes. Check and bake 5-10 minutes more or until a cake tester (aka: toothpick) comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan and then simply invert on to a cooling rack to cool completely. Slice and serve with a drizzle of raspberry sauce.

Bon appétit, Blair