Sour Cream Pound Cake Anyone?

The thing that I am most often asked to bring to family gatherings, church functions, bake sales and benefits is the humble pound cake. I love to cook and, when baking, I enjoy baking a pound cake most of all. It happens that it is also my favorite cake to eat. I have baked more pound cakes than I could ever remember and the cake I most often bake is a Sour Cream Pound Cake and this cake, which I baked today, is it. For a change of pace, I sometimes make a chocolate sauce or lemon curd topping or sliced fruit that can be added to each piece, but most people enjoy it just as you see it.

I have come to realize over the years that it isn't just the recipe but the quality of the ingredients that count. If you would like to try it, the recipe follows.

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3 cups sugar
3 cups all purpose flour(I use only King Arthur All-Purpose Flour)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 large eggs
8 ounces sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until it is creamy(about 2 minutes). Gradually add sugar, beating a medium speed for 6 or 7 minutes until mixture is well mixed and creamy looking. Combine flour and baking soda and add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, starting and ending with flour and blending well after each addition. Add eggs, one at a time,beating at low speed, just until yellows disappear. Stir in vanilla extract.

Spoon batter into a Bundt or 10-inch tube pan that has been sprayed with baking spray(the kind that already contains flour). Bake 300 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes or up to 2 hours(until toothpick inserted into top comes out clean).

Cool on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes. Makes one 10-inch cake.

Bon appetit!