It's A Thing

I'm having a vanilla thing. Must be because I bought a big bottle of Penzey's single strength vanilla extract. And it tastes so good.

I have never made pound cake. I like pound cake, but I wouldn't say it was a favorite, mainly because it tends to be dry. And I've only really had the frozen stuff out of the box. But I have long read, most recently in an article by James Villas in Saveur, about the glories of pound cake. And how it is a Southern thing, mainly. Now, of course, the cake--originally made with a pound each of butter, flour, and sugar, I believe--can trace its lineage back to England. Or France. Or Italy. Probably in the eighteenth century. Of course, we don't often weigh the ingredients anymore, but the name has stuck (much like 1-2-3-4 cake, which is, I think, 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs. That'll be next. I like trying "historic" recipes).

Anyway, Villas claims that in the U.S., Southerners understand the cake better than anyone. We can argue about whether Texas is truly Southern (yes, yes, I know, it was a Confederate state, but culturally, well . . . no one in the other Southern states thinks of Texas as one of theirs. It's like Connecticut claiming it's part of New England. Sure, officially, but that's about it.), but regardless, I have wanted to try my hand at the cake. If only to attest to my "Southern" (didn't I just say Texas wasn't very? Don't look for logic here) roots.

And so today, I made pound cake with the kids. Vanilla pound cake from King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (note: I didn't use Villas's recipe because I didn't want to use almond extract in the batter and like to follow a recipe perfectly the first time). Their favorite part? Poking the holes in the cake at the end so I could drizzle in the glaze. All I can say is wow.

I made it this morning and it's gone. DS licked most of the batter off the spoon and bowl, and had a piece from the middle. DD devoured both ends. I saved a piece for DP so she could experience the vanilla-ness. And I swiped half a piece at playgroup. Otherwise, it's gone.

And it didn't even "age"--or even cool!--the way it's supposed to.

Maybe next time. And there will be a next time.

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Vanilla Pound Cake

Cake
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed (I had dark)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cups flour (or cake flour--I used regular unbleached all purpose King Arthur)
4 large eggs

Glaze
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugars, salt, vanilla, and baking powder until smooth and fluffy. Add the flour and mix well; the batter will be almost like paste. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition; the batter will be quite fluffy.

Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9-10" tube pan, 9-10 cup bundt-style pan, or 9 x 5" loaf pan (this is the one I used). Bake the cake for about 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, while you're making the glaze.

Bring the sugar, water, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan and boil for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Turn the warm cake out onto a rack. Poke the cake all over with something long and thin, like a cake tester or ice pick. Slowly drizzle or brush the glaze over the cake, continuing to brush until all the glaze is used. Let the cake cool fully before slicing. Serve with sliced fresh fruit, if desired.

King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion