Ina, you done me wrong. Your "perfect pound cake" wasn't.

Greg Patent's REC: Banana Pound Cake...

BANANA POUND CAKE


Recipe By: Greg Patent
Serving Size: 14

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, (3 sticks) at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 large eggs
1/2 cup banana liqueur
1/4 cup poppy seeds, (optional)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350∞F. Butter a 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan, or coat with cooking spray, and dust the inside all over, including the tube, with fine dry bread crumbs. Tap out the excess crumbs and set aside.

2. Resift the flour with the nutmeg and salt, and set aside.

3. Beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar and vanilla and beat for 1 minute. Add the remaining sugar 1/4 cup at a time, beating for 20 to 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape the bowl and beaters, and beat for 5 minutes on medium-high speed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each.

4. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the banana liqueur, beginning and ending with the flour and beating only until smooth. Stir in the poppy seeds, if using. Spread the batter in the pan.

5. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick comes out clean and dry. A crack may develop in the top. Cool in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack, carefully remove pan, and cool completely.

6. Carefully transfer the cake to a cake plate. Just before serving, dust with confectioners' sugar. Cut into thin slices with a sharp serrated knife.

 
charlie, Thank you so much for taking the time to post these recipes, they all sound so good. Now

I have the difficult task of choosing.

 
Poor Ina, she publishes a recipe for this cake and calls it...

a pound cake?

Stick a feather in my cap and call it macaroni.

And calls herself an aficionado? Clearly she watches too much of herself on TV.

Ina has presented a yellow butter cake with a hint of orange.

Her "pound cake" works out to "1/2 pound," 1 pound and 4oz," "14.7 oz," and "12 oz" (butter, sugar, flour, egg).

Try the original. It was a classic for a reason: Ingredients: 1 pound each of:
Butter
Sugar
Eggs
Flour

Optional: Vanilla or lemon flavoring.

 
Back to Basics--REC: Classic Pound Cake...

Classic Pound Cake

Yield: Makes 2 cakes

1 lb. (3 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon coarse salt
4 sticks softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
9 large, room-temperature eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans. Combine all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl.

2. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 8 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla extract.

3. Lightly beat eggs, and add to mixer bowl in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each and scraping down sides. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until just incorporated. Divide batter between pans. Tap on counter to distribute; smooth tops.

4. Bake until a tester inserted into center of each cake comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire rack.

 
I thought I was done with this, but Smitten Kitchen's grapefruit OO pound loaf pulled me in.

It's not a "true" pound cake as defined by Richard, but anything that doesn't use 28 ounces of chocolate is a "pound" cake to me.

This olive oil cake was very good, although we mostly tasted citrus rather than "grapefruit" in the flavor profile. I used a large organic grapefruit ($2.06 for one!) so perhaps I was expecting more by way of flavor because of its cost.

The librarians were RAVING about the "icing" but what they didn't know was I was too lazy to wait for the grapefruit/sugar simple syrup to soak into the hot cake and just smeared the grapefruit/powdered sugar icing right on top...so it all meshed together.

By the way, I find it hard to believe powdered sugar icing gets as white as seen in the photo. Perhaps "Super White" icing gel was added? Or PhotoShop was used to enhance the hue? Or my personal favorite: it's wall spackling.

http://www.wizardrecipes.com/grapefruit-olive-oil-pound-cake/

 
guilty! That's how I "knew" it baked into a thin, crispy cookie. But this

was TWO complete tops fromTWO loaf pans. I had to throw the majority of it away because my middle name is NOT will-power.

 
Hmmm...my powdered sugar glaze gets that white. I'd like a truer grapefruit taste tho smileys/smile.gif

 
REC: COCONUT-CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE..this doesn't come anywhere close 2 meeting the 1-lb ingredient

regulations, but it's delicious. Source is a December 1990 Southern Living magazine.

The full recipe makes a 4-pounder so there is plenty to sample. I split the cake in two and popped half into the freezer. It kept quite well.

COCONUT-CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (6-ounce) package frozen coconut, thawed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut flavoring

Cream butter, shortening, and cream cheese; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Combine flour, soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture, stirring just until blended. Stir in coconut and remaining ingredients.

Pour batter into a greased and floured lO-inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1-1/2 hours or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Yield: one lO-inch cake (mine weighed 4 pounds). Southern Living magazine, December 1990 issue as submitted by Pat Belcher of Woodstock, Georgia

http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=156310

 
Never mind - looked at the postings in the link and see we had this discussion before smileys/smile.gif

 
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