Perfection Pound Cake

For the last few days, I have felt an intense need to make my Nanny (my English Grandmother) a poundcake.  Whenever I make Nanny a poundcake, she keeps it in her freezer (sometimes for months) and cuts off a little piece each day to enjoy with her daily cup of tea.

I’m always looking for new/different poundcake recipes to try out for her, so I was very excited to see this recipe on Mmm is for Mommy, adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours — which uses only half a cup of butter and turned out absolutely moist and delicious.  If you don’t have a Nanny to give it to, enjoy it yourself, or use it for a tea party.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup cake/pastry flour (or 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
In KitchenAid (or with large bowl and hand mixer) beat butter and sugar together for at least 5 minutes using paddle attachment on med-high speed, it should get quite light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 2 minutes between each egg addition on medium speed. Remove bowl from mixer, add in vanilla and go grab your rubber spatula.

In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and give it a quick whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the butter/sugar/egg/vanilla mixture and fold in until no dry flour remains, but not much more. Scrape the batter into a buttered loaf pan (I use a large 9 x 5″) and bake it sitting on another baking sheet on the middle rack of an oven preheated to 325 degrees for 75 minutes (putting it on the other baking sheets helps protect the bottom from browning too much).

After 45 minutes loosely tent the cake with foil so that it doesn’t brown too much on top. Let cool in pan for 20 to 30 minutes and then run knife gently around it and remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack before wrapping in plastic wrap.