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Easy-Does-It Pound Cake

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1 hr 20 mins total
20 mins prep

Recipe Filed Under
Baking, Dessert, Cake, Housewarming, Church Supper, Tailgating, Potluck

Provided By: Jean Anderson

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A pound of butter . . . a pound of sugar . . . a pound of eggs . . . a pound of flour . . . plus a lot of know-how. That's how our grandmothers made pound cake. Experience had taught them to cream the butter and sugar until nearly white, but to use a light touch thereafter, beating each subsequent addition only enough to incorporate. A heavy hand meant leaden pound cake mottled with "sad streaks" (eggy striations). Of all the pound cakes I've made, this one, sweeter than usual but fine and feathery, is my favorite.

Tip: Use pure vanilla and lemon extracts, not artificially flavored.

Ingredients

Serves:

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon finely grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (no substitutions)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk, at room temperature

Directions

Preheat oven to 300°F. Coat a 10-inch tube pan with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray; set aside.

Whisk flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt together thoroughly and set aside also.

Cream butter, vanilla and lemon extracts at high electric mixer speed 4 to 5 minutes until nearly white, scraping bowl often with a rubber spatula. Reduce speed to low, add sugar gradually, then beat hard 4 to 5 minutes more until fluffy, again scraping bowl frequently. Add eggs one by one, beating at moderate speed only enough to incorporate.

At lowest mixer speed, add dry ingredients in 4 or 5 additions, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with the dry, and beating after each addition only enough to combine. Further beating will toughen the cake.

Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth top, then rap pan sharply against counter once or twice to expel large air bubbles.

Bake cake on middle oven rack about 1 hour and 20 minutes until it is nicely browned and begins to pull from sides of pan.

Cool cake in upright pan on a wire rack 10 minutes, then with a small thin-blade spatula, loosen around edge and central tube, invert on rack, and cool to room temperature.

Cut into slim wedges and serve. No frosting needed.