I'm responsible, but silly. A penny pincher, but I love to shop. A Floridian, but I'm petrified sort of scared of swimming around in open water. In short, I'm a walking contradiction. 🙂 So, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that while I most definitely enjoy cooking and eating healthy foods, I'm also game for indulging in some sugar filled, calorie-rich foods that would make even Paula Deen say, "Now that's a lot of butter, yawl!" {Ok maybe not, the woman uses a LOT of butter.}
Yesterday I posted a recipe for healthy Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini. It was good and made a great choice for a mid-week meal. But now, it's the end of the week, and after working, helping my Mom move into her new place, nursing hubby back to health, finding a new cluster of gray hairs sprouting from my head, and just plain dealing with day to day life, I decided to bake up a little "reward".
Nutella Swirl Pound Cake. Holy yum.
Yes, there are two entire sticks of butter in this pound cake. Yes, the recipe calls for a whole jar of Nutella. Yes, your kitchen will smell like a buttery, chocolate hazelnut dream. And, yes, you will want to eat it directly out of the loaf pan with wreckless abandon. {No, I am not suggesting you give into that urge.} That is why, before you decide to bake this for yourself, you MUST determine who will be the recipient of the majority of this pound cake and then- before you have any time to change your mind - you must wrap it up and deliver it promptly to it's new home. {About a quarter of mine went to my Mom, grandma, and sister and the rest was shared with friends at girl's night. Minus 1 slice and any crumbs that happened to be laying around... which went directly into my belly.}
Ok, I'm just kidding, I know you and I have more self control than that. {Sort of.} But seriously, do yourself a favor and make this.
Nutella Swirl Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- One 13-ounce jar Nutella
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk the 1 ½ cups of flour with the baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. {I used the stand mixer.} With the mixer at medium-low speed, gradually beat in the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, beating at low speed between additions until just incorporated. Continue to beat for 30 seconds longer.
- Spread one-third of the batter in the prepared pan, then spread half of the Nutella on top. Repeat with another third of the batter and the remaining Nutella. Top with the remaining batter. Lightly swirl the Nutella into the batter with a butter knife. Do not overmix.
- Bake the cake for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean {remember it won't be completely clean because you'll be going through layers of nutella. Just make sure there isn't wet batter on the toothpick and you should be fine}. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, turn it right side up and let cool completely, about 2 hours. Cut the cake into slices and serve.
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