Bake Break: Pound Cake

In August I went home to Maine to visit my family and celebrate my sister's wedding. Unfortunately, my mother had been ill shortly before my arrival, and still wasn't able to eat much of anything (rest assured, she was able to attend the wedding). One thing she could enjoy, however, was pound cake. When I got home, I decided to try my own hand at it, with the hope of mailing her one in the future. Mother's better now, but I doubt she'd complain about getting homemade pound cake.

Naturally I went to my favorite baking companion, King Arthur, to help me out. The recipe I ended up using is notable for including cream cheese as well as butter, and it definitely demands an electric mixer. I can only imagine the throbbing agony my hand would be in right now if I'd had to mix everything manually. Here's the batter after I added five eggs to the butter, sugar, cream cheese, baking powder, and almond extract:

I then added the flour. The original recipe calls for all-purpose, but I used cake flour instead.

Once the batter was mixed, I poured it into my loaf pan.

The edges were a little overdone, so I trimmed them off with a knife.

Once the cake had cooled, I sliced it to reveal its lovely golden center. There's also a glaze that you can make to coat the top of the cake, but I didn't have the energy to do it this time around.

All in all this wasn't bad for my first attempt at a pound cake, though I now know to watch it more carefully near the end to keep it from burning. I ended up bringing this one to work, but I know I'll be making another one soon to send to my mother. And my dad can have some too.

Want to try this recipe for yourself? Copy and paste the link below:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/golden-vanilla-pound-cake-recipe