Pound Cake

A simple pound cake should be on all bakers list of recipes. A Pound Cake is a rich, finely textured yellow cake containing eggs, flour, butter, and sugar.A cake that is golden yellow, soft and moist. The way it derived its name is interesting. In olden days it used to be made with a pound each of sugar, butter and eggs. But over the years the recipe has changed.


I have done this as part of the 'Sweet Punch' recipe for the month of June. Really glad to be part of this as the Sweet Punch team consists of the ever passionate and famous bakers and bloggers Ria, Maria and Divya.

So here is my try at Pound Cake.

INGREDIENTS  
1 1/2 cup Cake Flour sifted
3/4 cup Sugar

3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons Milk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
13 Tablespoons/ 184 gm Unsalted Butter, softened 

METHOD

Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 180 degree C.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl on low speed for 30 seconds.

Lightly whisk the milk, eggs and vanilla in a separate small bowl.

Chop softened butter into small cubes.

Add the butter and half the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix till well moistened for about a minute on medium speed. This will aerate and develop the cake mixture. Keep mixing scraping down the sides.

Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 batches , beating for about 20 seconds each.

Grease the sides and bottom of a 8 x 4x 2.5 inch loaf pan or fluted tube pan.

Place parchment paper at the bottom and grease on top of it.

Pour the batter into the pan. Smooth the surface using a spatula. 

until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a greased wire rack.

Tips:

For making Cake flour at home - Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tbsp from it.Replace the 2 tbsp flour with cornflour and sift together 2-3 times.
I used the dough hooks of my mixer to mix this dough as it is difficult to do it using the egg beater.
Always use a parchment paper or butter paper to line the bottom of the pans to be on the safer side. It is easier to remove the cake from the pan.
If you have a real sweet tooth you can increase the sugar level a bit.