Pound Cake

Pound Cake - made November 6, 2010 from Little Cakes by Susan Waggoner (Book #8)

This is a nice, basic vanilla pound cake recipe.  If you need to use up some milk or need a quick cake for a tea or snack, this is a good recipe to use.  As mentioned, I whipped up this pound cake while I had the crispy fried chicken in the oven.  This is from Little Cakes so I felt it was appropriate to make them in little loaf pans.  When I moved, I retired my old mini loaf pans as their nonstick coating was wearing off and my cakes were sticking inside and coming apart when I tried taking them out.  I treated myself to a new set of mini loaf pans from my shopping lifeblood – I mean Amazon – made by Chicago Metallic and tried them out with this cake.  Wow, when they say nonstick, they mean nonstick.  I didn’t even have to run a spatula around these cakes when they came out of the oven.  I just turned the pan over and the pound cake came sliding out, intact.  Gotta love that.

Because this is a pound cake, the texture is dense.  If you’re looking for light, this isn’t it.  But it’s got a good vanilla flavor.  Whenever I make vanilla pound cakes, I usually double the amount of vanilla extract by adding an equal amount of vanilla bean paste as vanilla extract.  Just a personal preference.  While this cake is good, I have to give the nod still to the Best Vanilla Pound Cake recipe by Lisa Yockelson.  That’s still my favorite vanilla pound cake – it’s got more butter flavor.

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder, slightly rounded

Pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Two 5 ¾ x 3 ¼” loaf pans or one standard 9 x 5 “ or 8 ¼ x 4 ¼” loaf pan, greased and floured

1.        Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.  Stir to combine and set aside.

2.       Add the vanilla to the milk and set aside.

3.       Cream the butter until very light.  Add the sugar gradually, beating continuously.  (I creamed the butter in my Kitchen Aid mixer until it was soft, about 2-3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.)

4.       Add the eggs one at a time, mixing just until completely blended.

5.       Add one-third of the dry ingredients to the butter-egg mixture, then half the milk, beating after each addition just until combined.  Repeat with the next third of dry ingredients, the rest of the milk and the remainder of the dry ingredients, beating after each.

6.       Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325˚F, about 35 minutes for small loaves, 45 to 55 minutes for larger loaf.  Don’t be alarmed if your golden brown crust splits to reveal a strip of yellow cake – this is desirable in pound cakes.