Pound Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 16oz (1lb) of unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
• 16oz (1lb) cake flour
• 16oz (1lb) sugar
• 9 large eggs,
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• + 1 TBS butter and a little flour for pan

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°.

Coat 10″ Bundt (or “tube” pan), or 2 9×5″ loaf pans with butter, then dust with flour.

Cream butter and sugar for 5 minutes at medium speed. Stop once to scrape bowl.  Reduce speed to low and add eggs one at a time, until each egg is fully incorporated. Stop to scrape bowl if needed. Mixture will look lumpy or “curdled”. Add vanilla and salt and beat at medium speed for 30 seconds.

Reduce speed to lowest setting and add flour in 3 parts, until each part is fully incorporated. (Otherwise, you’ll have a face full of flour dust.) After the final third, scrape sides of bowl and beat mixture at medium speed for 30 seconds. Pour or scoop batter into prepared pan(s).

Bake for 1 hour, or until internal temperature reaches 210°. Crust should be golden brown and springs back when pressed.

Remove cake from oven and set pan (don’t remove the cake yet!) on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, remove cake from pan(s) and cool on rack. When cake is fully cooled, pour on lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2.5 TBS lemon juice
• 6oz (by weight) powdered sugar
  

Place zest and juice in a small bowl; slowly whisk-in powdered sugar until it is fully incorporated. Poor over cake and allow to set for 30 minutes. Slice and serve!

Alton Brown takes on the pound cake, How to Make Your Own Butter (and why you would even want to), and Other Potentially Useful(less?) Information

 Here’s my post on How to Make Your Own Butter (and why you would even want to)

A Word on Cake Flour
You can make an “in-a-pinch” cake flour substitute, however, it will not be the same as actual cake flour. Why not? For one thing, cake flour is more finely milled than all-purpose flour (and all the sifting in the world can’t change that), and two, cake flour is bleached which weakens the gluten in flour, allowing for cakes and other baked goods to set faster, rise better, the fat to be distributed more evenly, with less vulnerability to collapse. [source]   More info from Alton Brown

Cake flour in a pinch
For every cup of flour:
remove 2 TBS of flour
replace with 2 TBS corn starch
Sift. Then sift again. Then keep sifting, for a total of 5-6 times.
Again, not as fine as cake flour (you’re not affecting the fineness of the grain after all), but usable “in a pinch”.

Bundt Pan (useless info)
The shape is inspired by a traditional European fruit cake known as Gugelhupf, but Bundt cakes are not generally associated with any single recipe. The style of mold was popularized in North America in the 1950s and 60s, after cookware manufacturer H. David Dalquist trademarked the name “Bundt” and began producing Bundt pans from cast aluminum. Publicity from Pillsbury saw the cakes gain widespread popularity. [source]

And finally, my hero, Alton Brown, in Good Eats S13E09,  American Classics V: A Pound of Cake

 

Hey, everybody’s got a dirty kitchen.

By: theCrackerBoxKitchenFiled under Dessert. Tagged Alton Brown, cake flour, Good Eats, homemade butter, how to make butter, lemon glaze, pound cake. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments