Perfect Pound Cake

There is nothing better than a slice of well baked cake. While I am all for frosting, sometimes only a plain pound cake will satisfy my need for something sweet. The past few days I have been craving a plain buttery cake but refrained from baking one, to keep my calorie intake in check. As you can see that resolve was broken pretty easily.

We have had rains this entire week in Dallas. There is something about rains that demands baking and the smell of freshly baked cake in the house. After a day of trying to fight the urge, I finally gave in and decided to get my whisk out and bake a buttery cake. Since a no frills cake was on my mind I thought of using the Tish Boyle’s Luxe Pound Cake recipe that is in the blog archives and have baked from many times with excellent results. Its a rich, buttery pound cake with a tight crumb. The only problem was that the recipe calls for more than 5 eggs, so does the Scandinavian gold cake recipe which was my second choice and is equally good. I only had 5 eggs in my pantry and since it was raining, a walk to our neighborhood store was not possible (I need to get an Umbrella or a rain coat soon). I did not want to halve the recipe and take chances. Instead I stumbled on another one of Tish Boyle’s recipe on Shirley’s site Kokken. And I am glad I did and thank Shirley for posting it.

I haveTish Boyle’s cookie cookbook: The Good Cookie  but after trying a few of her cake recipes I am inclined to add The Cake Book by Tish Boyle to my collection. She is the queen of pound cake for me.

A golden crust, a tight crumb and a velvety texture with a hint of citrus is what characterizes this classic pound cake recipe I am sharing today. Unlike other cakes, a crack on top is actually a welcome thing for pound cakes, because of its dense batter. Due to its density, the outside bakes first and forms a crust. As the centre begins to heat up and expand, the batter pushes up and out which is what results in a cracked top. If baking in a loaf pan like I did, you could avoid a crack top by using wet strips around your pan, which will even out the heating. Else cover it with icing and serve. I don’t mind the crack and just enjoyed the cake as is.

This cake was over as quickly as it came together. V, who generally is not much of a dessert person, specially requested me to pack the cake with his lunch for office the next day. My weighing scale definitely did not appreciate how good this cake was, but now that the cake has happily satisfied my mom, V and me I can get back to a house with no cakes. Or at least put off baking one till another rainy day.

To ensure you get the perfect slice of pound cake from the recipe below, reading this article on common mistakes while baking pound cakes on the Bon Appetit website might be helpful. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Happy Baking!