I am seriously one of Joy the Bakers biggest fans and she hasn't led me astray yet, even though some of her recipes sound downright disgusting, odd and maybe a little grotesque. So due to my trust and admiration of her, I decided to make her Avocado Pound Cake recipe last weekend. I figured I love avocado and I love pound cake, so how bizarre could it be, right? However, I do have to say that the comments on my fb page when I posted what I was making, did range from don't waste a good avocado, make guacamole instead to sounds good.



And I have to say I was actually pretty impressed. The strangest part was just the process of cooking a dessert with avocado. And ok the 2nd strangest part was the fact that the pound cake was green. And normally most desserts only turn green due to mold, so that was an adjustment.

As for taste I was pleasantly pleased. I honestly couldn't taste the avocado per se, but I did feel that the avocado added a creamy texture and also acted as kind of a fat substitute of sorts. This pound cake only called for 1 1/2 sticks of butter, whereas other pound cake recipes call for vats-o-butter. I did really like the fact that this pound cake was not too sweet, but just sweet enough. It also has a nice texture addition due to the corn meal. All and all I was very pleased and my adventurous friends who tried it all really enjoyed it.

This recipe is also very easy to make. Mix the dry ingredients.

Cream the sugar and butter. Add the mashed avocado and watch your mixture turn a nice little mint green.

Beat in the eggs, vanilla and then start to beat in part of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk and the rest of the flour mixture.  And bake...doesn't get much easier than that!


3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

flesh of 1 1/2 ripe avocados, just over a cup to a cup and a half of avocado, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two loaf pans and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.  Set the four eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature while you beat the butter and sugar.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened and pliable.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add the avocado and beat another minute to incorporate.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg.  Beat in vanilla extract.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture.  Beat just until combined.

Divide the dough between the two loaf pans and place in the oven.  Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F.   Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.  I checked my cakes every ten minutes or so after the 30 minute mark.   Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.


And for all of you who are still mourning the "waste" of a perfectly good avocado, never fear the cake uses 1 1/2 avocados so you still have an extra 1/2 of avocado for guacamole...win/win. Btw, if you are true avocado fan like I am try avocado martinis...love them!! Cafe Firenze in Moorpark has a great one, but a lot of martini bars can throw one together for you...they are refreshing, slightly sweet and very creamy. Yum!!