Pound Cake

I’m all about the slogan.  It’s the marketing genius that sticks with you.  "Betcha can’t eat just one."  Correct – the Lay’s potato chip and I are good friends.  "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee."  Enjoy a slice of their pound cake while working your way through all of those double negatives which somehow cross-cancel into a positive statement.

If you have the time, make a pound cake from scratch.  This recipe from Southern Living is titled “Classic Southern Pound Cake.”  This might be southern but not sure about “classic” as most pound cake recipes do not include cream cheese (although no one is complaining around here about the smooth, moist result).  Paula Deen and some others use shortening; Ina Garten uses buttermilk; another used sour cream; the purists are straight butter.  The Mann family taste testers do agree that the cake tastes better with a topping of fruit.

“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” – Alka-Seltzer

Happy Labor Day!

Ingredients

• 3 C granulated sugar
• 1 ½ C (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• ¼ C half-and-half
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 300ºF with oven rack in center of oven. Grease and flour a 10-inch (14-cup) bundt pan.

Beat sugar, butter, and cream cheese with an electric stand mixer on medium-high speed until very fluffy and pale in color, 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs,1 at a time, beating on low speed just until yellow disappears after each addition. Add egg yolks, half-and-half, and vanilla, and beat on low speed just until blended.

Stir together flour and salt in medium bowl; gradually add to butter mixture in 3 batches, beating on low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Remove bowl from stand and scrape batter. Using a spatula, stir batter once by hand, scraping sides and bottom to incorporate any unmixed batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan, and gently tap pan on counter to release any large air bubbles.

Bake in preheated oven until cake is golden and a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes (note: mine took closer closer to 1:40/1:45). Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove cake from pan, and cool completely on wire rack before slicing and serving, about 2 hours.