A delicious grilled cheese… or is it? / Photographer: Landon Carter
Ingredients:
Pound Cake
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Frosting
- 2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring
Directions:
Pound Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 9×5 bread pan.
- With an electric mixer or a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and light. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating after each on medium speed.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla extract. Scrape down the bowl and mix until everything is evenly combined.
- Add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir until combined. Mix lightly with a spatula to pop any flour bubbles.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake for around 40 minutes. Check the middle with a skewer. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
Frosting
- Beat the butter in a small bowl.
- Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk (start with one tablespoon). Beat together until smooth and fluffy.
- Add your food coloring in small increments until you get your desired cheese shade.
Grilled cheese assembly:
Once the pound cake is cooled, slice it into standard bread-width slices.
Using a frying pan or a toaster, toast the slices of pound cake to give it the grilled bread look.
Once the pound cake looks grilled, put frosting in between two slices. Gently squish the slices together to make some frosting come out the sides. It will look even more realistic if the “bread” is still warm from grilling, melting the frosting to look more like cheese.
Review:
Imagine biting into a warm, gooey grilled cheese sandwich, only for it to be sweet pound cake with frosting. This prank is a fun and surprisingly realistic idea, and it is fairly easy to execute. For an even easier, but less delicious, version of this, you could use store-bought pound cake and frosting, but making it yourself is much more fun.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went, doing only one test toasting before diving right into the assembly. It looks like a real grilled cheese sandwich, and it still tastes great after the toasting. This pound cake recipe is from Preppy Kitchen made by John Kanell. It is easy to make and has only eight simple ingredients. I like this recipe because it does not use as many eggs as a traditional pound cake, but it still has an excellent flavor and texture.