1-2-3-4 Pound Cake

My work as a pet sitter has some great perks.  Being my own boss and being around the cutest, most adorable pets in the entire universe.  Yes, those are great perks.  But every once in awhile, I get a job that has a few more perks than most. One of those I had not too long ago.  I have a pet sitting job on a farm, complete with large garden, cute dog, and chickens.  Lots of chickens.  In fact, this was my haul when I was there over the summer:

So what do you do when you have WAY more eggs than you know what to do with?  You make a nice, big pound cake.  Nothing says "southern" like a good ol' fashioned pound cake.  I have a very special bundt pan that I use for my large pound cakes.  This thing is older than I am and it's almost as old as my father.  I mean, just LOOK at the color and style of the box!

It belonged to my great-grandmother and I inherited it from her after she passed away many, many years ago.  My grandmother held it for me so that when I moved into my own home, I would have my very first bundt pan to use.  It is perfection itself.  Although Nordic Ware has come out with many different kinds of bundt pans over the years (roses, anyone?), nothing beats the original style that is still so easily recognizable today.  It has been well-loved over the years and I am looking forward to using it for the rest of my days.  (Because it outlasted my great-grandmother and will probably outlast me!)

1-2-3-4 Pound Cake
recipe from The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook

1 c. Unsalted Butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 c. Sugar
4 Eggs
3 c. All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 c. Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350.
Spray your bundt pan with cooking spray with flour or coat the sides well with butter.
Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
One at a time, add in the egg, beating well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture alternately with the milk, ending with the flour, mixing until combined.
Mix in your vanilla.
Pour into your prepared bundt pan.
Bake for ONE HOUR or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan (a cake tester will come out clean).
Allow to cool on a rack for fifteen minutes.
Hold your breath and pray as you flip cake out of the pan to cool on the rack completely.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Today was National Pound Cake Day!  Didn't know?  Me neither.  Til I went to MSN and they had a whole article about pound cake and recipes for them.  Today's random bit of knowledge for you - pound cake is named as such because it used to have a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, and a pound of flour in the recipe.  And did I mention a pound of eggs, too?  Certainly made it easy to remember the ingredients, that's for sure!  Good for the waistline (or the heart, for that matter)?  Oh no.  But we've come a long way baby!  You can find numerous pound cake recipes all over the place for any taste palate or diet restrictions (honestly, five years ago, could you have made a gluten free pound cake?).

I've loved pound cake since I was a child.  My mother has a recipe (which I'm currently searching for) of my grandmother's pound cake.  My dad and I used to fight over who would eat the top of the pound cake!  Sound strange?  You've never had that pound cake.  The top has this wonderful crunch to it that I've never found in another pound cake.  Once mom finds and gets that recipe to me, I'll have to make it and post it here because everyone must try that pound cake.  And if a fight breaks out, I wanna know that too ;)  Anyhoo, since I did not have my favorite pound cake recipe on hand, I decided I would need to make a new one!  I could not let this "holiday" pass me by without making a pound cake.  So I went to my plethora of cookbooks (one day, I'll post pictures of my bookshelf so you can see all my cookbooks) and found a pound cake that seemed simple enough and one I had all the ingredients for.  So all the way from Savannah, Paula Deen's Grandmother Paul's Sour Cream Pound Cake!

Grandmother Paul's Sour Cream Pound Cake
(from The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook)

1 stick of Butter
1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Sour Cream (Daisy Light)
1 1/2 c. All-Purpose Flour (King Arthur Flour)
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1 Egg
1/2 c. Egg Beater (I used this because of the calorie count of eggs.  No Egg Beaters?  Substitute 2 large eggs.)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla (Nielson-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste)
Cooking Spray with Flour (I use Pillsbury Baking Joy with Flour)

Preheat oven to 325.
Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugar.
Add sour cream.
In a different bowl, sift flour and baking soda togehter.
Add mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with eggs, beating well after each.  (This is important to ensure you have a light cake.)
Add vanilla.
Pour into a 9x5 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Calories - 283 for 1 serving (serves 10)

Side Note:  Want a different dessert?  Slice pound cake and throw onto a heated grill pan.  You'll get these nice looking grill marks and serve with vanilla ice cream and a yummy ice cream topping (strawberry is yummy!).