Even though there are all kinds of pound cakes, Mama’s recipe is for the plain, old fashioned variety – without even a hint of almond extract (which is fine by me because I’m sort of eh about almond extract, anyway).
(However, when it comes to actual almonds, I’m a committed fan.)
So here’s the recipe for Straight Up Pound Cake.
You may rest assured that my mama doesn’t call it that.
1/2 cup Crisco
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups cake flour (Swans Down is Mama’s favorite)
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking powder
And.
Mama will not bake a cake unless she has Land O Lakes butter on hand. Which I do not. Because I bought, oh, eleventy four cartons of Publix butter when it was on sale a couple of weeks ago, and if I have an inferior pound cake product as a result of my Publix butter-buying spree, then I guess I’ll just have to live with that.
Life is filled with tough butter-buying decisions, y’all. And sometimes you just have to live with the consequences.
Also.
I’m just as sorry as I can be about those two sticks of butter being turned upside down in the picture. It’s driving me CRAZY, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. And I thought about re-staging the whole picture just to get those sticks of butter turned right side up for once and for all, but I really don’t want to have to explain to my husband why I’m re-staging a photograph of pound cake ingredients. Frankly, he thinks I’m plenty crazy as it is.
So.
First you butter and flour a tube pan; then preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
And by the way, that’s some Food Network Chuck Wagon Cook-Off something-or-other in the background. You’ll be well-familiar with it by the end of this post because I think the chuck wagoners made it into just about every shot. Since I have mad photography skillz and all.
And just FYI: the batter is much, much tastier than the cowboy’s expression might indicate. You’ll have to take my word for it.
And then, if you’re Alex, you talk to the egg a little bit as it’s blended into the batter. Because you’re relational.
It’s actually quite responsible.
And if you’re wondering why this last picture is such poor quality, it’s because I was adding flour to a mixing bowl with my left hand while holding a camera with my right hand and simultaneously asking a four year-old to PLEASE KEEP HIS HANDS OUT OF THE FLOUR BECAUSE MAMA IS TRYING TO TAKE A PICTURE FOR THE BLOG.
It was a tender mother/child moment.
So tender, in fact, that I didn’t get a picture of the next step: pouring the milk in the mixing bowl. I was just completely overcome by the sweetness of that whole flour-adding experience. Such a precious memory. I’m sure you understand.
Meanwhile, on Food Network, someone is placing coals around a cast iron pot.
For some reason it’s very important to me that we’re all acknowledging what’s happening on the TV.
This is no different than, well, ever.
Remember: stir in the baking powder WITH A FORK. If you try to be all cool and use a spoon instead, I suspect the cake batter will catch on fire.
This is only a hunch.
And then, provided that you’re not having to extinguish batter-y flames as a result of your devil-may-care-spoon-using-bravado, you pour the batter in the (BUTTERED! AND FLOURED!) tube pan. There’s no need to smooth out the batter or try to get rid of air bubbles; the batter is so thick that everything will even out once the cake is in the oven.
And just so you know: I’m totally on to Alex’s end game. He may have been all “Mama, I want to help you” and “Mama, you’re the best cooker cake in the whole wide world,” but make no mistake – he is a boy whose primary cake-baking objective was to lick the bowl.
I sort of respect that, actually.
Anyway, bake your cake for one hour and fifteen minutes at 325. It may need to bake a little longer depending on your oven; mine took about an hour and a half.
But the end result is absolutely worth the wait.
And it won’t be any time at all before the whole thing disappears.
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Oh, you actually did a step by step photo shoot just for me!! Woohoo!!
Alex, the seal, is way cuter than Howard. He was just there for licking the bowl, hmmm – you taught him well, grasshopper.
Btw, you had me at half a pound of butter. I actually have a sugar cookie recipe that has real butter AND crisco – something about that combo just melts in your mouth!
Your assistant is adorable! I don’t think I’ve ever even tasted a HOMEMADE pound cake! I feel so deprived! : ) I’ll have to make one!
Oh, that looks yummy! And just imagine, we’re having my Granny’s cream cheese pound cake tonight. I confess I like the cream cheese variety. And (don’t tell anyone), I really like it when it’s a little undercooked so there’s a sad streak in the middle. Of course, my uncle always says its the kids jumping in the house. Granny has tried to go to loaf pans and had a mutiny on her hands because a sad streak just won’t appear in those.
Okay, I didn’t mean to go on, but there’s a LOT to say about pound cakes!
I have to say that I just LOVE the way you cook!!!
I also just love that your cooking something so decedent and your using organic milk :)
I am so impressed that you found the ONLY thing to make a homemade pound cake even sweeter–that precious little guy :)
Dude, I read this entire entry and all I could think of the entire time was “real live butter.” And I had a picture in my head of jaunty dancing sticks of butter, with full-on getups, like, top hat, white gloves, canes, and spats. Like Mr. Peanut, only butter.
oh man,if i make this i will be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and supper. I can’t have something like this in my house without it calling out to me all day long. my husband will ask two days later what happened to it and i’m like, yeah, that’s been gone a while now!
I. am. so. drooling. right. now. Can I have a piece? Seriously, that looks delicious. Its 11:00 here and I am really getting hungry!!!
yum! you and big mama and your recipes have inspired me to share my favorite. and it is ever so easy!
Sopapilla Cheesecake
2 cans of croissant buscuits
2 packages of cream cheese, softened
2 c sugar
1 t vanilla (mexican vanilla, if you have it)
1/2 c butter, melted
2 t cinnamon
1. Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish with 1 can of biscuits. Biscuit dough can be stretched a bit to cover the bottom of the dish.
2. Set aside 1/2 cup of sugar. Whip cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and vanilla. Spread this over the biscuit layer in the dish.
3. Use the remaining can of biscuits to spread out over the top layer.
4. Pour melted butter over the top and sprinkle cinnamon and remaining sugar over.
5. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes
6. Enjoy!
love&blessings,
heather marks
Thanks for the pound cake play-by-play. You are a woman of many talents. I’m new to blogging but have been a long time lurker on your site. You never fail to make me laugh.
Take Care!
Lisa
Can I just say. Your boy is so stinking cute. I know he and my stinking cute boy would have so much fun getting into mischief together. Not on purpose, mind you.
I finally did that alumni newsletter meme, by the way. What silliness. Except that people really do write those.
alumni post
OK once again I’m completely distracted.
NOT by Food Network in the background nor their Cowboy Cook off. NOPE not all! I saw that one!
NOT by Alex this time although that face is so squishy squeezably cute that I think it might just need smoooched!
NOT even by that lovely shiny Kitchen Aid mixer in my favorite color blue!
I’m completely and totally distracted by that BUTTER! Upside BUTTER at that!
Don’t get me wrong. I followed along chuckling and licking my chops at all that lovely ooooey gooeyness….
BUT….
My eyes kept looking upward…So much so I think I caught a glimpse of my pony tail in the BACK of my head! LOL
SO….To control my twitching and most likely yours as well I’ve tweaked that butter just a bit.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa84/JophiesJungle/Butter.jpg
And now all is right with the world.
Please feel free to snag and replace. Trust me it’ll make you feel much better. :0)
Trina
Alex is like the pound cake poster boy. He’s the boy in the commercial that makes you want to buy the product. :-) The cake looks delicious!
Love the recipe and my 10 year old adores pound cake- so we must make this soon! My questions is if a bundt pan works too? So sorry to be remedial… I really only bake as a bonding experience. I am more of a pot stirrer… I forget things once they are out of sight, like in the oven!
And the picture of that big grin is too sweet- you could just eat him up! Hope the barking goes soon… it is so scary for them!
Pretty pound cake! I like to peel the crusty part off the top when nobody’s looking and eat it.
I do not make pound cake, ’cause my Daddy makes the best pound cake ever, and I don’t need to learn since he is teaching my 10 year old daughter.
How spoiled am I?????
I so enjoyed this post. I can’t wait to enjoy the cake too.
Ever since Dr. Oz (on Oprah) said butter is healthier than margarine, I’m loving my butter.
2 sticks, that makes it EVEN healthier if you ask me! :)
No one else can make me read through a whole entire recipe and study the pictures like that! Man, you’re a hoot!
You had me at butter.
You have the cutest little boy in the whole wide world. (I can say that because I have daughters)
Also, all 4 of my girls had croup last week. They are fine now. But I may never recover.
Soooooo … how many carbs does this pound cake have???
And of COURSE you can’t bake without Land O Lakes … what are you THINKING, woman!!! It just wont taste the same!!!
It looks so delish! I would make it, except that I make it a rule to not make anything that doesn’t come out of a, you know, box or say…tube. Have you seen the new Pillsbury brownies in a tube? Culinary genious.
Got my Mandisa cd in today…LOVE IT!!!
Thanks for sharing this! I have a sweet tooth that this should fix.
I just love pound cake! Thanks for sharing mama’s recipe, looks delish.
Love to see that Organic milk! Makes eating a sugary/fattening desert a lot less guilty of a pleasure! lol
Your use of Pampered Chef products makes my heart swell with something very close to pride. Yum!
That looks so yummy! I have a kickin’ creamcheese pound cake that I make. I might just have to share it sometime. You must have lots of patience to have a lil’helper like that. My lil’ helper went to Kindergarten today:( I missed him)
Oh wow, does this look DEEEE-LICIOUS!!! I’m printing out the recipe right now and will be trying it soon!
boomama, i came across your blog while browsing on “5 minutes for mom” earlier, and, darlin, i had to put my sweet tea down just so i wouldn’t pour it all over my keyboard from laughing so hard and so loud after reading through mama’s pound cake recipe. you and alex, your genius child, brought tears to my eyes, and a blessing in my heart today. thank you!
Tell your mom “thanks” for the recipe. I can’t wait to try it! My grandma always used Swan’s Down cake flour and Land O Lakes butter, too! The pictures were nice, reminds me of Pioneer Woman Cooks blog. Have you tried any of her recipes?
Yummmm – very close to my homemade pound cake recipe. While it’s good fresh, it’s definitely better the next day (and the next, if it lasts that long). As soon as we replace the element in our oven (or our landlord does), I think I’ll be having to bake us up a pound cake. Of course, mine won’t have the 4-year old assistant, but maybe the 13 or 12 year old boys here will fill that role.
I was laughing out loud about a pound cake recipe. I can’t believe I was laughing out loud at a pound cake recipe! Great writing, great pictures, great commentary on the Food Network and political hair!
Oh, and I think I totally would have re-staged the ingredients so the butter wasn’t upside down. I can see why it was driving you nuts! ;)
I’m so proud to see that Pampered Chef measuring spoon!
Have you made it to hot, hot Houston to see Merritt yet? If not, now’s not a good time — it’s either over 100 or we’re in the midst of a tropical storm.
yum. can you do this little dealy in any other kind of pan? loaf pan? I want to make some but I don’t have a tube pan… I don’t think I do anyway. Perhaps I will go look…
I really enjoyed this post. I have been making baked goods to sell at the Farmer’s Market, including several pound cakes (in my Bundt pan) each week. I thought that was very interesting about the baking powder. I always combine it with the flour. Looks like it worked good for you!
My GOD WOMAN, are you trying to kill me? I almost leapt thru the screen to get to that luscious pound cake that looked like my Mama’s pound cake! Isn’t Howard a bit young to be taking on Emeril, though?
You’re too funny, Lady!
Hi Boomama! I have been reading your blog for several months now and enjoy it very much. I made your mom’s pound cake tonight for our fellowship meal at church tomorrow. I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait until after church to get a bite of it, so I spooned some of the batter into a small loaf pan and made a baby cake. It was amazing! perfect! Sweet, yet not too sweet, just a plain, perfect pound cake. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Elizabeth
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