Pound that Cake Down
By Anonymous in Food on Aug 24, 2005 12:11PM
Oh, yes, folks, Chicagoist found a recipe that used the KitchenAid mixer (make your own “ahhhhh” sound here) all the way through...from the time you put in the initial ingredients, to adding each of the eggs individually, to the final scraping of the bowl and pouring into the bundt-cake pan, the mixer was going. So shiny, so red, the flat beater creaming the butter with the sugar, flower, flavoring...
It was important that we chose our first KitchenAid mixer recipe with care. It couldn’t be too easy, Chicagoist didn’t want to wuss-out on the first use. But it couldn’t be too elaborate either, as one wrong move could relegate the mixer to the cabinet where the electric juicer and steamer now reside. We didn’t want to waste the maiden voyage of the Holy Grail of kitchen appliances on something bland (I say Holy Grail because we really haven’t made it into Viking territory yet, thanks to those fine people at Sallie Mae). What will it be? Pound Cake. Simple, buttery, delicious pound cake, directly from the KitchenAid recipe book that comes with the mixer. And it turned out perfectly. So much so, that I believe pound cake got its name from the fact that on a lazy Sunday afternoon, you are more than able to pound a couple of slices back no problem. Okay, three slices, and one after dinner, but you did make early in the day.
Old-Fashioned Pound Cake (yes, this can be made with a regular hand beater if you must!):
3 C. all-purpose flour
2 C. sugar
3 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
2 C. butter, softened (okay, I used margarine, I don’t want to totally die early)
½ C. low-fat milk
1 t. vanilla
1 t. almond extract
6 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in the mixer bowl, adding butter, milk, vanilla, and almond extract. Attach bowl and flat beater to mixer. Turn to Stir Speed 1 and mix for about a minute. Stop and scrape bowl (note to self: get spatula with longer handle). Turn to Speed 6 and beat about 2 minutes. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to Speed 2 and add eggs, one at a time, mixing about 15 seconds after each addition. Turn to Speed 4 and beat about 30 seconds.
Pour batter into greased and floured 10-inch tube pan and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, then cool on a wire rack. Remove from pan and serve plain or with berries if you choose. So yummy, and more importantly, made with the coolest mixer in the history of the world! AHHHHH!