Cake #4: Vanilla Pound Cake

Last week I went to Trader Joe's for some pizza dough. I love that store but don't go there often. You see, they have all this delightfully packaged beautiful food, and guys, I am a total sucker for pretty food and good packaging.

I ended up coming home with my pizza dough, along with a couple pounds of the most gorgeous blueberries ever, a jar of lemon curd, and a craving for a fat slice of pound cake to pile them on.

Then we all got sick and I put off making my cake until yesterday. I've been beating myself up over it ever since. Sick or not, I should've pulled myself together and made this like three times since I originally planned to. It was that good.

Part of this cake's charm is its simplicity. Flour, butter, eggs, sugar. Done. It can stand on its own--David and I each had a fat plain slice last night and it was fantastic--but the best use of a pound cake, in my opinion, is as a platform for all kind of other goodness. Because while I'm not ashamed to admit that I ate a heaping spoonful of lemon curd straight from the jar after taking these photos, it was that much better spread on piece o' cake with some whipped cream and blueberries to top it off.

Vanilla Pound Cake
recipe from myrecipes.com

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature*

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch loaf pan. Line bottom and long sides of pan with parchment, leaving about an inch of overhang on both sides. Grease and flour paper and pan, tapping out excess.

Sift flour and salt together into a small bowl. Set aside. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar in medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and pale, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well and then scraping bowl between each.

With mixer on low, add flour to mixture gradually until it is fully incorporated; do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool cake on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife along unlined sides of pan and use parchment to carefully lift cake onto wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with whatever toppings suit your fancy. (I strongly recommend TJ's lemon curd. Seriously. It is so good. I want to eat it on everything.)

*I always forget to take eggs out of the fridge long enough in advance for them to be room temp by the time I need them. My solution? Put 'em in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. Problem solved.