The Southern Spread
This month’s feature:
POUND CAKE
A pound of butter; a pound of sugar; 10 large eggs; a pound of flour. Those are the ingredient amounts that gave the pound cake its name. The original recipe didn’t contain salt, baking powder or flavoring. While I think butter can make almost anything better, a pound of butter might be just a little over-the-top, even for me. At the very least, it would probably be heavy (four pounds) and greasy, but hey, the original recipe certainly did catch on, so who am I to judge?
The pound cake probably originated in Northern Europe, but don’t tell a Southerner that. We’re pretty sure we invented it. Almost every Southern cook has a special pound cake recipe, often passed down from a close relative, and there are a gazillion variations on the original concept. There’s coconut, chocolate, lemon, blueberry, blueberry-lemon, lemon poppy seed, strawberry, sour cream, buttermilk, old fashioned cream cheese, even champagne, and there are various ways to flavor the batter like vanilla or almond extract, lemon zest, orange zest, and dried fruit, such as currants or dried cranberries—the possibilities are endless.
Personally, I think that baking anything other than the basic pound cake recipe is gilding the lily, but a lot of people think that’s just plain boring. (I also prefer vanilla ice cream rather than chocolate. I’m comfortable with boring.) But in the summer, basic pound cake is the perfect base for local fruits, like berries and peaches, with a dollop of whipped cream OR vanilla ice cream. It’s recommended that the pound cake be baked in a Bundt pan, just because it makes a nice presentation, but a regular ole loaf pan is perfectly acceptable, and it makes a lovely size cake to wrap as a gift.
I’ve made the recipe I’m sharing here a multitude of times, but yesterday, because I needed to take a photo for this article, the cake stuck to the baking pan in several places—primarily as a result of my impatience. The recipe is from the 1975 cookbook written by Rima and Richard Collin, The New Orleans Cookbook, and previously, it’s been a thoroughly reliable guide to the perfect pound cake.
NEW ORLEANS POUND CAKE
The favorite local cake, eaten plain, topped with fruit or whipped cream sliced into layers, filled with candied fruit and rum, iced for birthday cakes, and used in puddings and in Creole style trifles. We love this rich, hand-mixed version made with butter—the kind you can’t find these days in bakeries. Baking the cake at low heat for a longer than usual time seems to produce a lighter, more even texture. (a 2-pound, 10-ounce pound cake)
1 cup (2 sticks) salt butter
2 cups sugar
2 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup milk
5 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
(I also add a teaspoon lemon extract)
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Soft the flour, baking powder, and salt together twice and add to the butter and sugar. Gradually pour in the milk, beating the mixture slowly with a wooden spoon as you pour, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly for five minutes each. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts and mix. (I use an electric mixer with successful—usually—results.)
Butter the inside of a Bundt pan, or an 8-inch round or square cake pan, then dust the buttered surface lightly with flour. Fill the pan with the cake batter and bake in a preheated 300-degree oven for one hour and 15 minutes or a bit longer; the cake is done when the top is golden brown, and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into it comes out dry. Cool on a cake rack at room temperature before turning out of the pan.
Note: Take the butter and eggs out of the refrigerator about 45 minutes ahead; having all the ingredients at room temperature gives you the smoothest possible batter.
Personal note: To shorten the mixing time, beat the eggs in a food processor for 30-40 seconds and then add all at once into the batter and mix for 15 or 20 minutes.
Our own Southfacin’ Cook, Patsy Brumfield submitted a sour cream pound cake recipe a while back, and I encourage you to click on the link below and check it out.
http://porchscene.com/2014/11/25/southfacin-cooks-southern-sour-cream-pound-cake-by-patsy-brumfield/
We’d love to hear from our readers about their favorite pound cake, and hopefully, you’ll share the recipes too. Send them to us, and we’ll print them all! Email me at:
If a pound cake falls apart coming out of the baking pan and nobody’s there to see it….can it still be in a Porchscene article?
Images: Deborah Fagan Carpenter
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