Pound Cake

My mother always told me that the pound cake got its name from the way that, way back when, the recipe involved a pound of all the ingredients. A pound of flour, pound of sugar, pound of butter. I don't know if that's true, but this is one of my favorite cakes. It doesn't come out oily like some pound cakes (ick), it has a heavenly crust on top that goes perfectly with summer ice creams or sherbets, it's not too sweet and it's not too heavy. It's sort of the perfect cake. (It also freezes well for future consumption, if you're like me and can't eat a whole cake in just a few days)


Pound Cake

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature or microwaved on low power until soft (for most of my recipes I use unsalted sweet cream butter, but go with the salted version for this)
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 cups sifted flour
1 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 300F.

Begin by beating egg whites until stiff (reserve the yolks in another bowl). Transfer whites to another bowl to wait for a moment then rinse mixer bowl for the rest of the recipe. Beating the egg whites first just saves time and keeps you from having to wash the mixer bowl  and beaters later after you've mixed the other ingredients.

Next, cream together butter and sugar thoroughly. Add egg yolks one at a time. In a different bowl, add baking soda to flour. Alternately add flour mixture and sour cream to creamed mixture. Gently fold in egg whites. Do not stir or overfold, you want the egg whites to add volume and lightness to your mixture here.

Spray a tube pan (or a bundt pan if you don't have a tube pan. Bread pans will also work, this recipe is flexible) with non-stick baking spray. This is a non-stick spray that has flour in it, and is perfect for cakes. If you don't have non-stick baking spray, grease then flour your pan. Pour the batter into the pan, then bake for 1 1/2 hrs at 300F. The cake should have a nice brown crust on top, and a cake tester should come out clean when inserted to the center.

Remove cake from oven and sit it on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before attempting to remove it from the pan. The longer it can sit and cool, the moister it gets, so let it hang out for as long as you like before inverting the pan to turn it out. Flip it back over so that the crust is on top before serving.  Goes well with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

Serves: 10-12