How to Bake Classic Pound Cake - I did it!

I finally did it!  I baked my first pound cake!!  Can you believe I had never made a pound cake before this?  In my defense, pound cake is decidedly a southern thing.  Growing up in Vermont, we just didn't bake pound cakes.  The only pound cake I had been exposed to prior to moving south was the Sara Lee loaf kind you buy in the freezer section at the grocery store.  Now that I live in North Carolina, pound cake is everywhere, and in so many wonderful flavors. Oh, homemade is sooooo much better than that frozen stuff!

I'll admit I was very nervous, possibly even a little bit scared, to make my first pound cake.  As I said before, I have absolutely zero background in baking this kind of cake.  Add to that the fact that my mother-in-law is pretty much a pound cake baking goddess.  You can be almost guaranteed that when you walk into her house, there's a pound cake in the cake cupboard.  Yep, she makes it so much there's a cake cupboard where it's kept.  Now if that's not intimidating, I don't know what is.

And there you have it - fear.  Fear of the cake.  But I desperately wanted to overcome this fear.

So, after eight years of knowing my husband and eating his mother's wonderfully amazing pound cake, I decided to give her recipe a whirl myself.  Trying to recall all the tips and tricks she told me, I set out on my journey.  Doubts still ran through my head - What if I don't get the batter mixed just right?  What if it gets a streak in it? (I've learned that this is when it doesn't bake evenly, creating basically an unbaked "streak" through the cake.)  What if ... and apparently this is one of the worst and most frequent pound cake mishaps ... it won't come out of the pan?  What if it bakes up ugly??  But I pressed on ... 

After combining all my ingredients and beating them for the full 15 minutes called for in the recipe, I poured my beautiful pale yellow, smooth, creamy batter into my pan.  I'm a sucker for batter, so of course I tasted it at this point.  Already yummy!

Beautiful batter

But when my cake came out of the oven, one of my fears had come to be - the top of the cake baked up ugly, and one part of it was slumped down a little.  Fortunately, it settled down a tiny bit as it cooled - but it still certainly wasn't the prettiest cake around.  This made me very worried to cut into it.

Not-so-beautiful baked top

When it finally came time to cut, Mark and I did it together.  After all, he grew up with this cake and would for-sure know if it was up-to-snuff!  Because of the slumped side, he was positive there was going to be a streak in it.  When we cut, I was extremely glad to find no streak!

Now came the ultimate test ... the Mark taste-test.  I'm happy to report that my pound cake passed with flying colors, ugly top and all!  The Mark quote:  "I think you've done it."  That's very high praise from my particular husband.

As I do with most of my baked goods, I gave the majority of the cake away.  As I was packaging up my little cake care packages, I asked Mark if he wanted me to save him a few slices.  He said no - so I asked, "Are you sure?"  He said, "Yes, I'm sure."  I admit, I was surprised.  So, I decided to save just one slice for me to have the next day.  Here it is - all by itself on the cake plate:

One lonely little piece of pound cake

Here's what the cake plate looked like the next morning when I came down for breakfast:

Someone stole the pound cake!

Guess what Mark had for breakfast...

Compliments of my mother-in-law, here is the recipe for this classic pound cake.  Eat it plain, or with berries or whipped cream (or both!) on top.  Even if it bakes up ugly, it will still taste delicious.

Classic Vanilla Pound Cake
Source:  My Mother-in-Law

Ingredients
3 c. sugar
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter
2 T. Crisco shortening
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. milk (my mother-in-law and I use 2% milk)

Directions
Cream the sugar, butter, and Crisco.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat with an electric mixer about 10-15 minutes.  Combine the flour and baking powder.  Add flour mixture and milk, alternately, to the creamed sugar and eggs mixture.  Pour batter into a tube pan that has been generously sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 325 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool about a 1/2 an hour in the pan; remove cake from pan.

Enjoy!

This post is linked with Summer Desserts Link Party hosted by Cajun Sugar Pie, Flashback Friday hosted by Cookin' for My Captain, and This Week's Cravings hosted by Mom's Crazy Cooking, The Inspiration Exchange, Whimsy Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday, Tutorials Tips & Tidbits, Your Creative Timeout Party, Thursday's Treasures, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweet & Savory Saturdays, Creativity Linky Party, Saturday Show & Tell, Tuesday Talent Show, Lil' Luna Link Party, Inspiration Exchange, Cast Party Wednesday, Whimsy Wednesday.

I finally did it!  I baked my first pound cake!!  Can you believe I had never made a pound cake before this?  In my defense, pound cake is decidedly a southern thing.  Growing up in Vermont, we just didn't bake pound cakes.  The only pound cake I had been exposed to prior to moving south was the Sara Lee loaf kind you buy in the freezer section at the grocery store.  Now that I live in North Carolina, pound cake is everywhere, and in so many wonderful flavors. Oh, homemade is sooooo much better than that frozen stuff!

I'll admit I was very nervous, possibly even a little bit scared, to make my first pound cake.  As I said before, I have absolutely zero background in baking this kind of cake.  Add to that the fact that my mother-in-law is pretty much a pound cake baking goddess.  You can be almost guaranteed that when you walk into her house, there's a pound cake in the cake cupboard.  Yep, she makes it so much there's a cake cupboard where it's kept.  Now if that's not intimidating, I don't know what is.

And there you have it - fear.  Fear of the cake.  But I desperately wanted to overcome this fear.

So, after eight years of knowing my husband and eating his mother's wonderfully amazing pound cake, I decided to give her recipe a whirl myself.  Trying to recall all the tips and tricks she told me, I set out on my journey.  Doubts still ran through my head - What if I don't get the batter mixed just right?  What if it gets a streak in it? (I've learned that this is when it doesn't bake evenly, creating basically an unbaked "streak" through the cake.)  What if ... and apparently this is one of the worst and most frequent pound cake mishaps ... it won't come out of the pan?  What if it bakes up ugly??  But I pressed on ... 

After combining all my ingredients and beating them for the full 15 minutes called for in the recipe, I poured my beautiful pale yellow, smooth, creamy batter into my pan.  I'm a sucker for batter, so of course I tasted it at this point.  Already yummy!

Beautiful batter

But when my cake came out of the oven, one of my fears had come to be - the top of the cake baked up ugly, and one part of it was slumped down a little.  Fortunately, it settled down a tiny bit as it cooled - but it still certainly wasn't the prettiest cake around.  This made me very worried to cut into it.

Not-so-beautiful baked top

When it finally came time to cut, Mark and I did it together.  After all, he grew up with this cake and would for-sure know if it was up-to-snuff!  Because of the slumped side, he was positive there was going to be a streak in it.  When we cut, I was extremely glad to find no streak!

Now came the ultimate test ... the Mark taste-test.  I'm happy to report that my pound cake passed with flying colors, ugly top and all!  The Mark quote:  "I think you've done it."  That's very high praise from my particular husband.

As I do with most of my baked goods, I gave the majority of the cake away.  As I was packaging up my little cake care packages, I asked Mark if he wanted me to save him a few slices.  He said no - so I asked, "Are you sure?"  He said, "Yes, I'm sure."  I admit, I was surprised.  So, I decided to save just one slice for me to have the next day.  Here it is - all by itself on the cake plate:

One lonely little piece of pound cake

Here's what the cake plate looked like the next morning when I came down for breakfast:

Someone stole the pound cake!

Guess what Mark had for breakfast...

Compliments of my mother-in-law, here is the recipe for this classic pound cake.  Eat it plain, or with berries or whipped cream (or both!) on top.  Even if it bakes up ugly, it will still taste delicious.

Classic Vanilla Pound Cake
Source:  My Mother-in-Law

Ingredients
3 c. sugar
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter
2 T. Crisco shortening
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. milk (my mother-in-law and I use 2% milk)

Directions
Cream the sugar, butter, and Crisco.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat with an electric mixer about 10-15 minutes.  Combine the flour and baking powder.  Add flour mixture and milk, alternately, to the creamed sugar and eggs mixture.  Pour batter into a tube pan that has been generously sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 325 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool about a 1/2 an hour in the pan; remove cake from pan.

Enjoy!

This post is linked with Summer Desserts Link Party hosted by Cajun Sugar Pie, Flashback Friday hosted by Cookin' for My Captain, and This Week's Cravings hosted by Mom's Crazy Cooking, The Inspiration Exchange, Whimsy Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday, Tutorials Tips & Tidbits, Your Creative Timeout Party, Thursday's Treasures, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweet & Savory Saturdays, Creativity Linky Party, Saturday Show & Tell, Tuesday Talent Show, Lil' Luna Link Party, Inspiration Exchange, Cast Party Wednesday, Whimsy Wednesday.