Old Fashioned Buttermilk Pound Cake - For the Recipe Box

After posting about the 12 lb pound cake that was served at the Rosedown Plantation housewarming, I decided to make one myself.  Not a 12 pounder, though!  I used a recipe from the Martha White Southern Sampler Cookbook.  I have had this cookbook for years and every recipe that I have used has turned out delicious. 

Deeply rooted in history, the pound cake has been a staple at picnics, potlucks, and family gatherings.  It is a Southern tradition to be embraced and thoroughly enjoyed with ice cream, whipped topping, fruit topping, coffee, hot chocolate, a tall glass of milk, or by itself.  The name (Pound Cake) comes from the fact that the original pound cakes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No leaveners were used other than the air whipped into the batter. In the days when many people couldn't read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes.

A cake made of 1 pound of each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour would have been very large and would have been able to serve multiple families. As years went by, the portions of the ingredients used were adjusted to make a smaller, lighter cake. However, the name of the cake stuck.

Old Fashioned Buttermilk Pound Cake

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups Martha White All Purpose Flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.  Cream butter, shortening, and sugar together in mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Blend in vanilla.  Sift flour, salt, baking powder, and soda together, add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Mix well after each addition.  Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted one inch from edge comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes; turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

Usually, a dessert at my house might last a day.  But the pound cake prevailed!  It lasted three!  If a pound cake is still too large for your family, consider other ways to prepare a dessert using the pound cake. 

Southern Living

The trifle, for example, would be an excellent choice.  The options with a trifle are limitless!  Different combinations of pudding, fruit, or even candy. I've made one before where I used red hots.  You use whatever your heart desires!
 
There is also that ole time favorite, strawberry shortcake. You could even try that with a new twist and grill it.  I have even read where the pound cake was sliced, dipped in french toast batter and fried in butter.  They suggested topping it off with butter pecan ice cream and caramel. How delicious!  Who cares how many calories are in there! 

This site has a new twist on the pound cake I never considered.  A milkshake!  It has roasted strawberries and pound cake mixed in.
For the recipe, click on the link above.

If you have any ideas you'd like to share, please share them by leaving a sweet comment!

Info obtained from:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/PoundCake.htm

http://voices.yahoo.com/creative-uses-sara-lee-pound-cake-542555.html



Linking to:

Foody Friday @ Designs by Gollum