The Best Pound Cake EVER!!!

So this is by far the BEST pound cake that you will ever have… I have no idea of the origins of this recipe except to say that it came from my great-grandmother and she was a southern woman who knew her cooking!!

The pound cake got its origins when people did not write down their recipes and needed easy ratios to remember. The pound cake was one pound each of: butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Pretty simple.. only that much cake would take a regular size family forever to eat! So the recipe has been sized down to smaller portions and modern ingredients have been added (like baking powder) to make the cake lighter.

Keep in mind that this is still a large cake and you need up use at least a 12 cup fluted or bundt pan to prevent it spilling over. A good rule of thumb is to never fill your pan more than 2/3 full. Use the extra batter in a loaf pan or cup cake pan just monitor the time because they will cook much quicker! 

Here is what you will need:

3 cups Sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup crisco (or add an extra 1/2 cup butter)
6 eggs, room temp
1 cup milk (I use whole milk)
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla (or 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp cooking sherry)

So lets get started! First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees and set your eggs and butter out on the counter so they can come up to room temp. When I know that I am making the cake that day, I set the eggs and butter out at breakfast time. It is SO much easier and makes a lighter cake when you can really cream the butter and sugar together and it is so much easier when they are soft.

Start off with the butter, crisco and sugar in the mixer. I use a stand mixer but a hand held one will do just fine. You need to beat them on medium-high speed for 3-5 minutes to get them to where they are creamed. Stop the mixer at least once to scrape the bowl with a spatula, to get any forgotten clumps mixed in.

While they are mixing, put your remaining dry ingredients (Flour, salt, baking powder) in a bowl and mix together, set aside.

If you still have a few minutes left, grease and flour your baking pan (I am using a 12 cup fluted pan in these pictures). I like to use the wrappers from the butter to grease the pan. I add a small pad of butter, as necessary to cover the entire pan. Then, sprinkle a tablespoon or two of flour into the pan and shake it around to make sure all the butter is coated.

After the butter and sugar are creamed, add the eggs, one at a time and make sure they are mixed well in-between each egg (about 30-45 seconds). For this recipe I used 7 medium eggs rather than 6 large ones, use your judgement, thats how my Nana did it!

Once all the eggs are mixed in, add a quarter of the dry flour mixture and allow it to mix, followed by a quarter of the milk and allow it to completely mix. continue adding until flour and milk is all mixed, I usually give it 30 seconds between additions. Stop and scrape the bowl again with a spatula.

As you are mixing the batter one last time, add the vanilla. Allow it to incorporate for at least one minute. Scrape with a spatula one last time and now pour it into your greased, floured pan.

Bake at 325 for one hour, 20 minutes (80 minutes). I check mine after 70 minutes and adjust the time as necessary. When it is done, the cake will be golden brown on top and might have some cracks in the surface, it will be slightly pulling away from the edges of the pan.

Another good way to check if it is done is to insert a toothpick into the center, it is done when the toothpick comes out clean with no gooey batter on it.

Do you have a favorite family recipe? Share it or a link to it!

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