pound cake with saffron quinces

I baked this cake already twice in the last few weeks, because it is so delicious. The first time I added a little bit too much milk, so the cake was moist, and the quinces went all the way down to the bottom, but it was still very delicious.
It is very surprising to me, that the combination of saffron and quince is so exquisite.
As always you have to cook the quince first, but the rest is kind of a regular pound cake, so very easy, I would say.

First peel, core and cut the quinces. Put them with the 150 g sugar, the water and the big pinch of saffron in a small pan. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 8 min or until the quinces are soft. I think medium to low heat should do the job. You don’t want the quinces to fall apart. Put to the side and let cool down, while you proceed with the rest.
Melt the butter/margarine, preheat the oven to 175°C.
Fot the batter, whip the butter/margarine with 50 g of the remaining sugar until foamy and pale, add the eggs, one after the other or the prepared egg replacer.
Then add the flour, baking powder, salt and starch. Now you will have a quite firm batter. The sugar sirop of the quinces should be cool enough by now, to add it to the batter without „cooking“ the eggs. So add the sirop while stirring. If the batter needs more liquid, add milk until you get a smooth, gooey batter. Check for sweetness, if you think it needs more sugar, add again 25 g sugar.

Grease your springform tin (23cm diameter), I usually do this by using a butter/margarine paper. There is always left enough grease for the cake tin. Sometimes I need two papers. Since my mother showed me this trick, I always stash my butter/margarine papers in the fridge.
Fill in the batter, sprinkle the quince cubes on top and put the cake in the oven for 60 min.
If your oven doesn’t heat evenly it might help to rotate the cake after 30 min for 180°.
Check after 50 min with a wooden skewer, if the cake is already done. If no crumbs or batter stick on the cake you can get it out of the oven.