The Classic Dessert Ina Garten Says Is One Of Her Favorites

Food Network star Ina Garten loves dessert as much as anyone, but perhaps few love pound cake as much as Garten does. Considering that it's one of the sweetest buttery cakes you'll find, no wonder The Barefoot Contessa enjoys it so much. But when Garten makes her version, she elevates a classic buttery pound cake recipe by including two delicious ingredients: cream cheese and vanilla bean seeds.

Garten doubles up on the vanilla ingredients in her pound cake recipe with vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract (the latter of which you'll find in a typical pound cake recipe). If you're wondering why, Garten explained in a video on the Food Network's YouTube channel, "Too much vanilla is never enough." 

Garten's pound cake doesn't only boast a tremendous sweet flavor, though. She added that it also has "such a rich texture." The key to that rich texture may be Garten's other intriguing pound cake ingredient: turbinado sugar.

Ina Garten uses about ¼ cup of turbinado sugar in her pound cake recipe, dusting the entire inside of her baking pan with it before she loads the pan with her cake batter mixture. This lightly processed brown-colored sugar, which comes from pressed sugar cane, gets its color from its natural molasses. Its large crystals carry a caramel flavor. Although it may look like brown sugar, there are things that set turbinado apart from other refined sugar. So, how does this elevate Garten's pound cake?

Imagine taking a bite of pound cake that first delivers a scrumptiously crisp crust before you taste one of the softest and juiciest crumb layers you've ever had in a cake. Is your mouth watering? If you want this pound cake of your dreams to become a reality, line your baking pan with turbinado sugar like Garten because it will undoubtedly give your pound cake all the aforementioned delicious texture.

If you want to replicate Ina Garten's delicious pound cake, vanilla bean seeds, cream cheese, and turbinado sugar aren't the only special ingredients that you'll have to incorporate. Garten also mixes orange zest into her recipe. This fruity ingredient adds a citrus flavor to one of her favorite desserts.

Unfamiliar with orange zest? It's the orange-colored outside of an orange peel, which tastes very different than the white-colored portion just beneath it, which is very bitter. If you plan to use this citrus fruit for your pound cake, there are several tools you can use to zest an orange. These include a box grater, microplane grater, vegetable peeler, or a paring knife. Just be sure not to zest your orange so deep that you pick up the white portion of the orange. Her signature pound cake isn't the only cake that has a twist, though; Garten also puts her signature twist on icebox cake.