Pound Cake

I've always had a love for Pound Cake, specifically Costco's Pound Cake. Is it just me or don't you agree that Costco has the best food?! Muffins, cookies breads, and we must not forget about their $1.50 Polish Dogs at the Food Court! Try getting that at a Mariners games and you'll spend $8 without a drink. Costco is where the deals are at. Not to mention, you can have a whole meal just trying their free samples! But, enough about their Hot Dogs and free samples, it's all about the Pound Cake today.

There's just something about Costco's Pound Cake that I love. It's soft, moist, has a tender crumb and tastes of butter and vanilla. It's so simple, yet so good and addicting. In order to replicate it, I started my "recipe testing" with a Pound Cake recipe I used for my Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake Coffee Cake. This Pound Cake comes from Tish Boyle. I loved the texture of it in my Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake Coffee Cake but needed to try it in loaf form.

The results were, well, interesting. I felt that in the loaf form it became very dense, eggy and on the verge of dry, not like Costco's Pound Cake at all. I find that cakes that use butter as its base usually, if not all the time, come out with a cake thats on the dryer side than desired. It was fine in my other application of the recipe but it just didn't match the quality of a Costco Pound Cake. On to the next recipe!

Pound Cake 

Adapted from Tish Boyle's Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients

2 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2 x 5 1/2-inch loaf pan. Dust the pan with flour and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine well and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat the mixture at medium-high speed until very light, about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally (the mixture should look curdled at this point). Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture at low speed in three additions, alternating it with the heavy cream in two additions. Mix just until the flour is incorporated.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 60 to 70 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake before slicing and serving.

-Aaron John