Pound Cake

March 4: National Pound Cake Day

Before heading into a long meeting at work in the afternoon, Highlander takes preventive measures to stay awake with caffeine and a confection. So he gets a cup of coffee and a sweet snack, like a slice of pound cake, from the company cafeteria to tide him over till dinnertime. Since he prefers his pound cake plain and simple, without a sugary glaze, we sometimes bake a classic loaf at home when we get lazy on long weekends (although they always feel short!) or whenever we get the “munchies.” Prepare powdered sugar pound cake for a satisfying snack for long meetings, long weekends, anyday munchies and, most especially, National Pound Cake Day.

Recipe

(Adapted from C&H Sugar)

Ingredients

• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted (we used C&H brand)
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (we used Hawaiian Vanilla Company pure vanilla extract)
• dash of salt

Directions

Sift the powdered sugar. Cream the butter with the sifted sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs. Mix in the flour, vanilla and salt until the batter is smooth.

Pour into a generously greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for an hour, testing for doneness with a toothpick or skewer. Remove from the oven. Release the pound cake from the pan immediately. Cool completely on a wire rack. Slice and serve plain or with sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Notes

• The traditional pound cake gets its name for the amount of ingredients it takes to make it, for example, a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs and a pound of flour. The recipe we have featured is scaled down to feed just the two of us over the course of a few days.
• Learn a little bit about the history of pound cakes from the What’s Cooking America website.
• Thanks to Lisa L. for the vanilla she brought back for us when she visited the Big Island of Hawaii.