Every Cooks Must Have {Recipe} for Pound Cake

Any fashion editor will tell you, there are several "must-haves" for every woman's wardrobe..those key things that she need keep handy and be able to call on to really work it on any day!  Well the same goes for us cooks, home-cooks that is.  There are six or seven key components that any wife, mother, cook, should have in her go-to wheelhouse.  Like a recipe for:

 

1) a good dip

2) the perfect one-pot wonder

3) her slow cooker speciality

4) "I'm in a bind but the kids are hungry" (ie, breakfast for dinner or grilled cheese sandwiches & soup)

5) great mashed potatoes

6) a good spaghetti sauce

and last but not least

7) a killer pound cake recipe

 

Now I know what you're thinking..."who even makes pound cake these days?"  But you and I both know, long gone are the days were granny's pound cake is readily available where you can just walk over and get a slice.  Now, we're the mommies and sometimes granny lives, really, really, far away and by the time you convinced her to make and mail it...well, you know where I am going.

 

You need to have (in your cooking arsenal of "I got this!") a really good pound cake recipe.  Until recently, I've found one.   And a really good one at that.  This is simple, yet delicious.  Buttery and tender, yet sweet.  And not too sweet.  And oh, did I say that you'll be really, really proud of yourself, when you make this little nellie and knock it right out of the park?  Yeah.

 

So here it goes,

 

Southern Pound Cake recipe  as adapted by Chemeeka Sparks

You'll need:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) of unsalted butter (at room temperature)

3 cups of sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 baking soda

8 ounces of sour cream

1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

1/2 tablespoon of grated orange zest

 

With an electric mixer on medium speed cream unsalted butter until light and fluffy.  Slowly add in granulated sugar until combined.  Next, add your eggs one at a time, continuing to combine until the yolk disappears, before adding the next egg.  Once all of your eggs have been added, set the mixture aside and in a separate bowl, mix together your dry ingredients.

 

Alternating with your sour cream, begin adding your dry mixture to your butter, sugar, egg mixture.

Starting with your flour mixture you should be adding, dry/sour cream/dry/sour cream/dry/sour cream/dry all of your flour and sour cream have been added.  Next stir in your grated orange zest and both of your flavorings.

 

Grease and flour a 12-cup tube baking pan, and pour in your cake mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 mins or until a tooth inserted comes out clean. 

 

Top with your favorite pie topping or fresh berries that have been mascerated with one tablespoon of granulated sugar per 2 cups of fresh fruit and Bon Appetit!

 

I love, love, love this recipe and hope that you will too.  Happy Spring!

 

xo-Chemeeka