Old Fashioned Pound Cake

For Megan's birthday this year, I made this cake and brought it to Mom's for the usual Saturday night get-together. The cake was a hit with everyone, including Lorelei, Delilah, and Amanda, pictured here about to dive head first into the cake at Megan's urging. Don't worry, we stopped the girls from devouring the cake so that we could all sing happy birthday to Megan. Normally, it is my job to slice the cake. This time, Ryan took over this responsibility and did a better job than I could have done. I think Ryan is now the official Buckley family cake server.

The term "pound cake" comes from recipes with a pound of butter in the batter, and this pound cake really does call for a pound of butter. Of course, that is both the reason for the name and the reason it is so tasty. The resulting cake is a classic dense cake. No frosting is necessary and a simple dusting with powdered sugar might be nice. Next time I make this cake, I might try a chocolate fudge type frosting. But Megan is not a chocolate fan (is she really my sister?), so I used a cream cheese frosting. The result was delicious. Frosting or no frosting, you cannot go wrong with this cake.

Old Fashioned Pound Cake 

• 1 pound butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Sift together the flour and salt. Add flour alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla. Pour batter into a well-greased ten-inch tube pan or Bundt pan. Bake at 350 until cake begins to brown (about 15 minutes). Then, lower the temperature to 325 until cake is done. Bake for a total time of about an hour and a half or until the cake leaves the side of the cake pan. Allow to cool. Enjoy!