Two-Step Pound Cake

When was the last time you had a real Pound Cake that was not from the freezer section of the grocery store? Those are good in a pinch or in a trifle, but not for Mother’s Day. I decided that to go along with my mother-in-law’s Mother’s Day Picnic a good old fashion Pound Cake with real sweetened whipped cream and strawberries in their own juice would fit the bill. I looked at several recipes and decided that I was tired of ones that you had to mix things in a certain way. You know those, “add flour to mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour.” At 11 pm at night you just do not care if your milk and flour will get along with each other in the bowl if you don’t give them a proper introduction. Therefore, I was very excited to see this recipe from Southern Living that was a simple process as long as you have a stand mixer and a lot of butter and eggs.
A true Pound Cake has a pound of butter, pound of flour, and so on. It should not be a surprise when you see the 4 sticks of butter in this recipe. I do agree with my husband that it is a little too much butter. I think that one less stick would have been sufficient. It came together very easily and baked up well. I used my favorite bundt pan instead of a tube and the cooking time was the same. So go out there and buy you a box of butter and a bunch of eggs. See if you can give old Sara what’s her name a run for her money.

Two-Step Pound Cake
This cake requires a heavy-duty stand mixer with a 4-quart bowl and a paddle attachment.
Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 pound butter, softened
3/4 cup milk
6 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preparation
Place flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla (in that order) in a 4-quart bowl. Beat at low speed with a heavy-duty electric mixer 1 minute, stopping to scrape down sides. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.
Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.