Aunt E.C.'s Pound Cake

This is a proper old-school pound cake, the kind named for the original recipe ratio: a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, a pound of flour. No leavening, no liquid, no extracts. The lift comes entirely from air whipped into the butter and beaten in with the eggs, which is what makes this recipe a baker’s test of technique more than a list of ingredients.

The creaming step is everything. Beat the butter and sugar at medium-high speed for a full 5 to 7 minutes, until the mixture is visibly pale (almost ivory white) and tripled in volume. The air whipped in here is the entire leavening for this cake. Skip the long beat and you get a dense brick.

Adding the eggs one at a time is non-negotiable, sorry, is essential. Each egg needs to fully emulsify before the next goes in. Dump them all at once and the batter breaks into a curdled, watery mess that produces a heavy, greasy cake.

A generous 10 large eggs may sound like a lot, but it is the egg proteins doing what baking powder would do in a modern recipe. Use room-temperature eggs (cold ones will seize the butter) and beat in fully before adding flour.

The long, low bake (1 hour 40 minutes at 325°F / 165°C) is the other secret. A hotter oven would crack the top and dry the edges before the dense center could set. Patience here pays off in even, golden-crusted slices.

Pro Tips

• Sift the flour before measuring. Settled flour packs into the cup and gives you 10 to 15% too much, which produces a heavy, dry cake.
• All ingredients at room temperature, including the flour. Cold flour can shock the batter; let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes if your kitchen runs cool.
• Test for doneness with a long wooden skewer in the thickest part of the ring, not the center hole. The skewer should come out with just a few moist crumbs.
• Cool exactly 10 minutes in the pan before turning out, no more. Longer in the pan and the cake steams and sticks to the tube.

Variations

• Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract or the seeds of a vanilla bean for a vanilla pound cake.
• Stir in the finely grated zest of 2 lemons for a classic lemon pound cake.
• Serve with macerated berries and lightly whipped cream for a strawberry shortcake-style dessert.