Classic Buttery Pound Cake

I post a lot of extravagant, Smart Cookie-fied recipes on here like Nacho Mac & Cheese or Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Topped Brownies. That’s because I love to bring you a Smart Cookie twist, to give you something a little different and even more delicious. But there are certain occasions whenI just want a pure, unaltered classic in all its simplistic glory. It doesn’t need fancy fixings or crazy twists, because it’s that good on its own. This Classic Buttery Pound Cake is tried-and-true tastiness at its best. It’s about as simple as it gets, but dear lord in heaven, is it amazing.

Pound cake is such an underrated dessert. Nowadays, everyone wants 7-layer cakes in every flavor imaginable, topped with indulgent frostings or stuffed with cookies and whole pies. But sometimes you need to put aside that slice of Oreo-stuffed brown butter red velvet cake with lavender-brownie batter-cream cheese frosting in favor of a plain old slice of good pound cake. You don’t need a damn thing to go with it. All by itself, it’s just as delicious, if not better, than any other frosting-adorned cake out there.

This particular recipe is sublime, so moist and rich you’ll want to slap somebody. Just look at that gorgeous crumb! Its buttery flavor is so darn good, and that tender texture is something only heaven’s bakers could produce. I can’t get enough of it.

Is it good for you? Of course not; this is pound cake. I don’t want to hear any fussing about how there are two sticks of butter and “Eww vegetable shortening I don’t use THAT.” Shut your pie hole. It’s one cake, one amazing, delicious, and rich cake; you can indulge just this once. Stop complaining about silly things, and just enjoy the utterly moist and buttery goodness. You know what gives it that great texture and taste? All the stuff you complain about. Just for once, don’t worry about it. This is down-home goodness, and you can thank Paula Deen for that.

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

1. You’ve got to keep your eye on this baby towards the end of the cooking time because it goes from perfectly done to overbaked in the blink of an eye, and making sure you don’t overbake is essential to producing a moist cake. 90% of cakes that come out dry were baked too long.
2. As incredible as this cake is on its own, there are a million things to do with it. Toast it and slather with butter or jam, top with chocolate ganache or caramel sauce, serve with ice cream, eat with your coffee, cover in a glaze, cube it up to put in a trifle or dunk in fondue, and so on!
3. This recipe is easily cut in half to yield a 1 lb. loaf pan. I’ve done that in the past.

Perfect Pound Cake
Recipe adapted from Paula Deen of Food Network

Yield: 1 6-cup bundt cake or cut in half to make a 1lb. loaf pan

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened, plus more for pan
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 6-cup bundt pan or tube pan. Set aside.
2. With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla. Pour into pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a little crumb. Check cake after 50 minutes to ensure it doesn’t overbake. If the top starts to brown too quickly, you can cover it with foil.
3. Let cool completely before inverting pan and removing cake. Slice & enjoy. Store in an air-tight container.