Gram’s Butter Pound Cake

Another recipe from my grandmother, or Gram as we all called her.   This was her pound cake recipe, and it’s so freakin’ amazing that she has to get her name in the title.   Really, even for those of you who think pound cake is bland or maybe just disinteresting, please just try this, just once.   Honestly, you’ll make it again.   And again.

It’s fantastic as the base for strawberry shortcake, but it’s also just really good all by itself.   Plus, there’s an added bonus that it freezes really well so you can make it and save some or all of it for later…just cover it with aluminum foil and when you’re ready for cake just take it out and let it thaw on the counter.

Couple notes before I get into the specifics here.   First, apparently my grandmother loved mixing.   There’s a lot of mixing in this and you’ll see from some of the in-progress pictures that by the time you’re done and ready to cook, the batter is extremely smooth.   Honestly, I don’t know if all this is necessary – but tell you what, I ain’t gonna mess with it.   It works.   I haven’t tried doing it with less mixing because…why?   This is great as is.

Second thing, at one point you’re going to see me say something to the effect of “pour the batter into a tube pan”.   I’ve eaten this cake basically from the time I could chew and I still looked at that and said “what the f#%k is a tube pan”?   So, being incredibly internet-savvy (not really), I used the Google.   Apparently it’s just a deep, circular pan with a hollow tube inside it.   So you end up with a circular cake with a hole in the middle (like a huge donut).  A bundt cake pan is a kind of tube pan and I have one of those so I used that and it works.

Ok, on with the show!

Directions

Mix the sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set that aside.   Make sure they’re well-mixed – I use a whisk to get them all together.

In a separate bowl mix the flour and butter.   Here’s where she starts her mixing spree – you need to mix these with your hand mixer for five minutes.   It’s a long time, but you’ll notice the mixture is pretty smooth, and after we’re finally done with it, it will be very smooth.

Next, add the 5 eggs, one at a time.   Beat well after putting in each individual egg.  (So, egg, beat, egg, beat, etc. until you’ve done all five.

Take the sugar mix and add that gradually – I do it in four sections.   Again, sugar, mix, sugar, mix, etc. until it’s all in there.  Finally, add the almond extract and mix that for a final two minutes.   Like I said, it’s a lot of mixing but it’s all pretty easy.

Pour the batter into your tube pan (do not grease or flour it) and bake at 325 for 55 minutes to an hour, or until its golden brown at the top.   You’ll notice that the cake rises quite a bit, so make sure that there’s not a rack right above the pan in the oven.

Take the cake out of the oven, turn it upside down (this is why you don’t grease or flour it) and put it over a bottle to cool.   Seriously.   Depending on the size of the hole in your pan you should be able to use a 2-liter bottle of soda or a wine bottle.   Mine was a little narrow, so I used a bottle of Worcestershire sauce. 

The reason you do this is that, if you don’t, the cake will collapse in on itself while it’s cooling and get much denser than you want it to be.

When it’s fully cooled cut it up and enjoy!   Please, please try this one!   It’s simple and amazing.