Queenie: Vanilla Bean Pound Cake
Queenie - Recipe 1
“I’m good, tank you, darlin’, you good?” the woman replied, flashing a gold tooth at me. “And the little one, she getting big!”
“Too big!” my grandmother cackled her reply. I looked up at her and scowled.
“Why you fixin’ up your face like that? She’s just saying you’re growin’ up,” an older Jamaican man stepping out of the back room reassured me.
“This one is too sensitive, Peter.” My grandmother dismissed me with one hand. “Anyway, let me get a bun—not that one, the big one. No, no, the biggest one. That’s it—and two hard dough bread, one bulla, and a likkle pound cake for my husband, put a smile on him sour face,” she joked with the shopkeepers. The woman handed a giant brown bag of baked goods over to me with a smile. “Haffi help Grandma, she won’t be around forever.”
“Why Susie haffi be so morbid?” my grandmother asked me in a tight-lipped whisper as we walked out. “Sometimes Jamaicans are too overfamiliar.” - Excerpt from Queenie, Ch. 1
Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegan butter (EarthBalance is best for baking)
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegan sour cream (I used Tofutti)
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp melted coconut oil (or other veg oil)
2 Tbsp oat milk (or other vegan milk)
1 vanilla bean pod’s worth of seeds / vanilla “caviar” (I used one of the Java Sisters Vanilla Gourmet Tahitian beans)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a loaf pan with oil.
In the bowl of a mixer, cream together vegan butter, sugar, and vegan sour cream.
Add flour, followed by baking powder and salt. Mix until combined.
Mix in oil and oat milk.
With a sharp knife, slice your vanilla bean pod down the middle. Using the same knife, scrape out the “caviar” from inside and add to the cake batter.
Mix until well combined.
Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50 min or so, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool, and then serve with your favorite ice cream.
Enjoy!
