Financier-Style Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

Sweet, intensely vanilla in flavour with a tight, moist crumb and golden crust, this really is what all vanilla pound cakes aspire to be.

You can see by the photo that I didn't make financiers; I don't own a financier pan but I do own a new bundt pan that was calling out to be used and I wanted to make a cake that tasted as beautiful as I knew it would look. I also had a plethora of egg whites on hand that, unfortunately, had a smidge of egg yolk in them - I love the appendix that lists the recipes that use either egg yolks or whites alone and provides the quantity required....saves having to go through the entire book to find this information.

The batter mixes up quickly using Rose's 2-stage method (dry ingredients beaten with softened butter and some liquid/egg with the balance of liquid/egg beaten in later). I tripled the recipe for the bundt cake and it baked, perfectly level, in 40 min. on a rack placed in the lower third of my oven.

Don't let the specialized pan requirement discourage you from trying this recipe; apart from the bundt cake, I have baked this recipe successfully in a loaf pan and a mini muffin pan.