Basic but The Best Pound Cake

But nothing basic about it though. This is Richly basic if you know what I mean.

My husband is a big big fan of simple pound cake with no additions. That is the only cake he eats - I mean eats. Everything else, he just smells or looks at it. So, when his big day came around, I decided to make his favorite pound cake just the way I make it every year. He looks forward to his Pound cake every birthday. I can't keep it a surprise too - coz he knows there's a pound cake coming somewhere that day!

The recipe is from Paula Dean - the queen of butter and flour and eggs. Here's the link to her Southwest Georgia Pound Cake.  Thank You Paula for the wonderful recipe. Loved the cake when it came out of the oven! Still loving it till the last crumbs are left.

 

Measure and sift 3 cups of All purpose flour. Add baking powder and salt as per the recipe. Set aside.

  

In a big mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and beat well till fluffy. Then, add the 6 eggs but one at at time and beat well.

  

Then, add a little bit of the flour and mix well.

  

We will also add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream along with the flour in intervals - alternating between the two and mixing the batter well. This cream provides a lot of moisture and softness to the cake.

  

Mix alternately with the flour - beat well.

  

Pour the batter in a bundt pan if you have. I used a new non stick one so I did not prepare the pan - as in, I did not butter and flour the pan. But if you are using a regular pan, prepare the pan well before pouring the batter in. Give the pan a few taps on the counter so that the air bubbles get released. 

In the recipe, Paula Dean says to move this to a cool oven and then switch on the oven at 325F and bake for an hour and a half. I was actually running out of time as I baked this late in the evening and we were going to leave the house in an hour and a half - so I cheated and preheated a little. I put the cake pan while the oven was getting preheated. But, the cake still came out perfect. So, if you have the time, use a cold oven - if not, preheated is also fine.

  

And after an hour and a half (never mind - I was late to go out!!), this is how the cake looked. Remember, this is the base of the cake. 

Turn the cake around and voila...

I wanted to add a little glaze on top but I think I messed up the icing/glaze - I think I made the icing quite thin - the icing had hardened by the time I poured it on top of the cake and so I melted it a little before pouring - this made the icing run and it kind of became thin. But,  it tasted great though. Not too sweet and no thick layer of icing anywhere. But, there was a little well in the middle where we could dip for more icing if needed - I loved that part. So, all wells if it ends well!

For the icing, we will need

Icing Sugar - 2 cups
Butter- 1 stick
3 tbsp of milk
Vanilla essence for flavoring.

 

Sift the 2 cups of icing sugar once.

 

Melt the stick of butter and add the melted butter to the sugar. Mix well until combined and no lumps.

  

Add milk a little at a time until you get the desired consistency. This will harden as it cools and sets. So, try to make it just before you add icing to the cake. 

  

 Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence and whisk it all together. 

 

Pour the glaze on top the cake and move all around as you pour it. Do this when the cake is completely cooled down. My mistake was that I was running out of time (remember I have to leave the house and I'm already late!) and poured it on top of the hot cake and that just melted all the icing and hence the layer was thin. But, it was perfect to eat though as we all like thin icing. It gives enough sweetness without overpowering the pound cake.

  

  

And there it is - my husband's favorite pound cake - made jsut for him on his birthday!

  

And there are my two birthday people (its always my daughter's bday - no matter whose bday it actually is!). My daughter however refused to eat this cake - you can see her rolling her eyes - this cake was too white for her - she has to have chocolate present in anything! ( She got my genes on that) A cake with no chocolate is just boring for her!

  

There's the little well of icing in the middle - we loved to dip the pieces of cake in here and then smack it down! Yummy!

  

This one looks like a elephant! LOL!

  

Enjoy! Peace out!