Classic Pound Cake

With just five simple ingredients, you can easily create this moist and delicious old-fashioned pound cake from a vintage recipe. Pound cake, so named because it originally called for one pound of each ingredient, is a perennial favorite, and one that has survived the years. Most modern recipes gild the lily with sour cream, milk or any number of other flavorings and additions. As good as those are (and who doesn't like variety?), this classic version is rather perfect.

Here's the mis en place for the recipe. Flour, butter, eggs and sugar. (Also, vanilla and a pinch of salt, which I forgot to photograph.)

Start by beating the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time.Add the flour, a pinch of salt and vanilla -- and that's it!

Spoon the batter into a greased bundt pan.

Smooth it with an offset spatula, a butter knife or the back of a spoon.

Bake for about 45 minutes. The top will look underbaked, but you can tell it's done by the way the cake is separating from the sides.

Let it cool in the pan for about ten minutes. Then run a knife around the edges to loosen it, turn it out on a rack, and tap the top until the cake releases.

The cake has a nice crumb.

Production notes: Have the butter at room temperature, and beat it well. Add the sugar and beat the mixture until it's light and fluffy before adding the eggs. I also added the vanilla to the butter-sugar-eggs mixture, instead of after the flour. The first time I made this (see below), I sprayed the pan with Pam and overbaked it, which resulted in a broken cake. This time, I greased the pan with Crisco -- not sure that made a difference.
It is essential not to overbake this cake. Don't go by the color, but do test with a skewer.
I also made an quick icing -- put some confectioner's sugar in a bowl, and add liquid (milk, cream, water or lemon juice)  and mix to the desired consistency.

Fredelle and Nina's Poppy Seed Cake

If you're looking for something to win your honey's heart on Valentine's Day, do consider this moist, delicious and oft-requested poppy seed cake.  But you need to comfortable enough with your beloved to engage in a flossing duet, as this cake is so packed with poppy seeds as to make that task de rigueur. (My friend Allen said he counted and found 11,234 poppy seeds in the tiny slice he enjoyed. Not sure how many yards of floss he required.)

This recipe is not from a vintage hand-written card in my collection.  I got it from Joyce Maynard in the 1990s in exchange for signing up for her newsletter or buying one of her books -- the details escape me. And, as there often is, there's a story with the cake. The exact details also escape me, but I think she originally got the recipe from a friend (Nina), made a few changes (adding sour cream and maple syrup) and then made it numerous times for her mother (Fredelle) and family friends while caring for Fredelle during her last weeks and days.

To begin the cake, bring to the boil one cup of poppy seeds and one cup of whole milk.  Take it off the fire, and let the seeds absorb the milk while you prepare the batter.

During the penultimate step of the batter, add the seeds (and whatever milk has not been absorbed). 

This is one of those cakes that require the separation of yolks and whites -- kind of a pain as it involves using an extra bowl to beat the whites, but the technique does lighten the cake enough to make it worthwhile.  I always add some cream of tartar to the whites to ensure they are not overbeaten (and therefore too dry). Fold the whites in, gently, using a spatula.

Spoon or pour the batter into a bundt pan which you've coated with baking spray or greased and floured.

When done, place the pan on a rack for about ten minutes before flipping it over to cool.

Voila!  

Sometimes the cake releases perfectly from the pan (as above).  If it doesn't (as below), don't worry.  

Simply -- and carefully -- remove the cake stuck to the pan and get it back to where it once belonged (can you tell  I'm watching a Beatles special?)

The repaired cake, made a few weeks ago for the DD's birthday, below. At her request, I punched the cake with a lemon glaze (lemon juice and sugar cooked to a syrup).

And now, without further ado, the recipe.  I followed it exactly, but only used a tablespoon each of sour cream and maple syrup.