Recipe: Buttery Pound Cake

Buttery Pound Cake

Your basic pound cake: buttery, moist, simple, and rich. This versatile cake can be made into one 10-inch bundt, two 9 x 5-inch loaf cakes, one 9 x 5-inch and two 8 x 4-inch loaf cakes, or four 8 x 4-inch loaf cakes.

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, at room temperature
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole or 2% milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour the pan(s).

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle and beat until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl before each addition. Add 2 cups of the flour and beat well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the milk and vanilla, continuing to beat.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the baking powder, salt, and the remaining 2 cups of flour. Beat well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s). If you are using more than one pan, be sure the batter comes to the halfway point. Transfer to the oven and bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour for the bundt pan, 50 minutes for the 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, and 45 minutes for the smaller pans.

Cool for 20 minutes in the pan and then invert on a rack. Cool to room temperature and cut into 12 to 16 pieces.

Buy the Book!

The Bake Sale Cookbook:
Quintessential American Desserts
By Sally Sampson
Fireside Books/A Simon & Schuster, May 2000
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN: 0-684-86229-8
Recipe reprinted by permission.