The Perfect Pound Cake

July Sweet Punch challenge is to make a Pound Cake. The recipe is from The Cake Bible, where Rose has come up with a new method of baking the cake, very different from the butter-sugar creaming and wet+dry ingredients, the usual cake route. This method, according to Rose ensures a tight crumb.

The recipe asks for Cake Flour, and I didn’t have that in stock or even corn flour to make cake flour at home, so I just used All purpose flour/maida and my cake came out well. This is one of the best Pound Cakes I have made.

Perfect Pound Cake
(Recipe source: The Cake Bible)
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Milk
3 large Eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups sifted cake flour*
¾ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
13 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened [184 gms]

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 350 °F / 180°C. Butter an 8 inch by 4 by 2.5 inch loaf pan, or any six cup loaf or fluted tube pan.
• Lightly whisk together milk, eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl.
• Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix on low speed for 30 seconds, until blended. Add the butter and half the egg mixture, and mix until dry ingredients are moistened. On medium speed, beat for one minute. This will aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down sides.
• Add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds between each addition. Scrape down sides.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth surface with a spatula. Bake for 55-65 minutes (35-45 minutes if baking in a fluted tube pan), until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a greased wire rack. If using a loaf pan, flip the cake over so the top is up.

*For making Cake flour at home - Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tbsp from it. Replace the 2 tbsp flour with corn flour and sift together 2-3 times. Cake flour is ready to use.