Donna's Plain Cake
An old family recipe for an all butter pound cake. There are many pound cake recipes, but I've never found one I like better.
An old family recipe for an all butter pound cake. There are many pound cake recipes, but I've never found one I like better.
- Carbohydrate 175.0181265 g
- Cholesterol 461.367083333333 mg
- Fat 35.5171778333333 g
- Fiber 0.905388348151992 g
- Protein 16.5893136666667 g
- Saturated Fat 12.4686665833333 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (318g)
- Sodium 219.003383333333 mg
- Sugar 174.112738151848 g
- Trans Fat 3.35407824999999 g
- Calories 1067 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat Oven: 350 Degrees F Rack in middle oven
- In an electric mixer, cream the butter and the Crisco. Add the sugar and continue to beat until all of the sugar crystals are dissolved. Mixture will not be grainy in appearance. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating. Add the milk and continue beating. Sift the flour, salt and baking power and slowly add to the wet ingredents (butter, egg, milk). Continue to beat after each addition of flour. Add the vanilla extract last to the mixture. The cake batter shoud be very rich and thick.
- Grease and flour a tube cake pan. Turn the pan upside down and tap to remove any excess flour. You may want to place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan.
- Carefully pour the batter into the cake pan. Smooth the surface. Roll the pan to add just a small layer of batter all around the outside of the pan to help the cake rise.
- Bake 1 Hour and 20 Minutes. Do not open the oven for at least 1 hour.
- Let the cake cool in the pan before trying to remove. A thin knife may be used to cut around the outside of the cake to make sure the cake is loose.
Replacing the solid shortening entirely with butter alters the structure significantly, yielding a denser crumb because shortening traps more air during the initial creaming phase due to its higher melting point and water-free composition. Understanding how these fats interact with sugar and dairy explains the mechanics of a reliable, high-volume pound cake. Creaming butter and vegetable shortening together establishes microscopic air pockets that expand when exposed to heat, while three cups of sugar abrasively cuts into the fat matrices to build those crucial pockets. When eggs enter the mixture one at a time at room temperature, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, their proteins and phospholipids act as emulsifiers to bind the dairy liquids with the fats, preventing the batter from breaking. Introducing flour gradually develops just enough gluten framework to support the heavy emulsion without toughening the crumb, ensuring the final structure remains tender despite the rich proportion of ingredients.
The Role of Fat and Sugar in Emulsion Stability
Achieving a homogeneous batter requires managing fat crystal networks and liquid phases simultaneously. Sugar does much more than sweeten; the sharp edges of sucrose crystals slice through solid fats during mechanical mixing, creating cavities that carbon dioxide and steam will inflate during baking. If the milk and eggs are cold, those fat crystals resolidify and cause the emulsion to curdle, resulting in a dense streak at the bottom of the pan. Maintaining ambient temperatures for all dairy components guarantees that the fat remains semi-liquid and capable of holding water in suspension. Beating until the mixture looks pale and completely non-grainy means the sugar has dissolved into the moisture of the butter and shortening, which prevents a coarse, gritty texture in the baked crumb.Managing Heat and Pan Physics
Bake this batter in a tube pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, positioning the rack precisely in the middle of the oven to ensure radiant heat surrounds the metal evenly. Rotating the batter slightly up the interior walls of the greased pan before baking encourages the rising dough to grip the surface and climb straight rather than sliding back down. Resist opening the oven door for the first 60 minutes, because a sudden influx of cooler air causes the expanding air cells to deflate permanently before the starch gelatinizes and the protein sets. Allowing the cake to cool completely in the pan lets the internal crumb structure firm up sufficiently, making it possible to release the heavy pastry cleanly without tearing.
