Neapolitan Pound Cake

Like many other South Africans (and probably people the world over), I have fond memories of eating a Neapolitan ice cream as a child – the mixture of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate blending to create something at once simple and spectacular.

I'd wanted to reinterpret these flavours as a cake for some time when I saw a pound cake recipe in Zoë François's new cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cakes. While pound cakes are a staple in most bakers' arsenals, what made hers intriguing was that it used icing sugar rather than caster sugar – something I was very curious to test out.

Due to the icing sugar, the recipe starts almost like the first step towards making American buttercream – the creaming of butter and sugar – before the flour and eggs are added. I also wanted to keep it a true pound cake, so it uses no leavening agent. All the lift comes from this creaming process.

This yields a cake with a denser, tighter crumb structure – perfect if combined with a dollop of whipped cream. If, however, you want a lighter crumb, you can consider using my Victoria sponge cake recipe as a base and adding the chocolate and strawberry flavours. Whichever you choose, it'll certainly be delicious and reminiscent of a sweet, colourful ice cream in the height of summer.