Cold Oven Cake

There’s a style of pound cakes that are not baked in a preheated oven. It’s basically a pound cake with half as much baking powder. Here’s a recipe from epicurious and joyofbaking, for comparison.

The idea is:

• cake will slowly come up to temperature, as the oven preheats
• crust will take more time to set, allowing the rest of the cake the opportunity to expand
• slow rise will cause bubbles to expand more gently and uniformly, producing a tight crumb
• crust will spend more time in the oven, drying out and getting crisper

I tried baking it and can confirm that it will bake up. Personally, I’m not a fan of this and I feel like I may not be using it to its strengths. The texture was very tight and dense: it looks under-baked and gummy but it’s completely cooked. I think this tight crumb may allow serving it in a different style, perhaps with some fruit compote or jam. Or maybe a glaze or syrup.