Today, Our Lady Oprah is talking about rudeness as a “serious national problem.” I could point the finger (but not THAT finger) all day long at the texters, the loud-talkers, the woman using profanity IN THE TOY SECTION and the cowboy seated in front of me who passed gas from Nashville to Boston, but then I’d have to point the finger at myself, because I’m totally flunking the Oprah quiz. I’ve sent e-mails while I talked on the phone. I let Henry the Wonderdog deliver an Act of Congress under the magnolia tree down the street. (He caught me off guard, Oprah.) And I’m chronically late.
Consider the name of this blog: Ezra Pound Cake. I’ve been meaning to post a pound cake recipe FOR MONTHS. Last weekend, Jeff reminded me that people who Googled “pound cake” were coming here and leaving empty-handed. Probably scrawling my URL in public bathrooms.
Well, I’m no pound-cake tease. Today, I’m sharing my recipe for Lazy-Day Pound Cake.
What’s different about this pound cake? There aren’t any exotic ingredients. No demanding decorations. You don’t have to fill a water bath or fire up the torch. It’s not exciting. But it is GOOD. It has less flour and more sugar than most pound cake recipes. Sour cream AND heavy cream. And a little liquor. You can leave it out, if you want. I used it once when I misplaced the vanilla, and I liked it. It adds a little something-something.
Also, I bake this pound cake the old-fashioned way, starting out with a cold oven. I think it makes the “top” (which becomes the cake’s bottom) crunchier. We snack on the crust while the cake cools.
Since Lazy-Day Pound Cake isn’t cloyingly sweet, it works well as a blank canvas for toppings: a dusting of confectioner’s sugar, a basic white glaze, chocolate sauce, compotes, fresh fruit, whipped cream, ice cream, caramel, mascarpone, citrus glazes and syrups. Sometimes I leave the cake plain, so I can cover it in aluminum foil and change the toppings with each slice. If you top the entire cake, just cover it with a dome. It will stay moist for days.
So, to review, profanity and poop should be kept to oneself, but pound cake is meant to be shared. A saying destined for cross-stitched pillows everywhere.
Lazy-Day Pound Cake
From Rebecca Crump (EzraPoundCake.com)
Inspired by Warren Brown’s “CakeLove”
- 2 1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons cake flour
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon rum (optional)
- 2 teaspoons whiskey (optional)
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups sugar
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- Place oven rack in middle position, but do not preheat. Generously coat a 10-inch Bundt pan with a nonstick spray, like Baker’s Joy®.
- In a medium-sized bowl, sift the flour, potato starch, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
- Measure the sour cream, heavy cream, rum, whiskey and vanilla extract into another bowl. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on the lowest speed, about 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, then the yolk. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients with the sour cream mixture, ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and mix at medium speed for 20 seconds.
- Pour the mixture into the greased Bundt pan. Rap the pan to eliminate air bubbles. Place pan in oven, and set oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the cake to loosen it from the pan, and invert cake onto rack to cool completely.
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You are so nice to share your recipe and your gentle reminders. I was at a job interview last month and the interviewer was checking her Blackberry every five seconds because the chairman was going to be emailing her for advice ANY second. Would it have been rude of me to mention how unfortunate it was that he never did get in touch? Should I have brought her a pound cake? :)
If that’s the kind of cake you make on a lazy day, then I don’t want to see you on a productive one. My kind of lazy day cake is the kind you buy at the bakery!
(BTW: is it rude to call you out this way?)
And how many of your readers know who Ezra Pound was? (Love pound cake by the way.)
Audrey: Oh, no, she didn’t! No pound cake for her.
Dana: I was thinking about Edna Lewis’ Busy-Day Cake, which is really quick and simple. Go figure. ;)
Judy: Let’s pretend everyone knows who Ezra Pound is. Otherwise, we’ll be breaking my mother’s poor librarian heart.
OMG!!! Your pictures are making me droll!! Great job! Love your biscotti pics!!
Do I really have to keep my profanity to myself? Really? @$#@!$!#* Love this pound cake! I can’t imagine leaving the liquor out when I make this. I usually look for ways to add liquor. The cake looks great! And I WILL be checking back for an Ezra Pound tutorial any day now.
ok fess up. you MUST reveal your icing recipe!! this just looks incredible! and if you’re looking to try out another awesome pound cake, try Paula Deen’s Southwest Georgia Pound Cake.
Aww, pound cake. It still pulls at my heart strings to this day. Ever since I won one of my very own at my school’s cake walk when I was seven. I was so proud! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
That’s funny…my blog name includes baseball, baking, and books but it seems the baking part has taken over the blog. I need to jump on that.
Thanks for the recipe…sounds like one I need to try soon. I like how you said that you can top each slice differently. A terrific thing when you have children and they each want/like something different, just to be different!
~ingrid
remember how mommaw always had poundcake available when we were little? You’d walk in and there was almost always one cooling or slightly already sliced into. mmmmmm, poundcake. lovely lovely poundcake.
This looks so pretty and delicious! I love pound cake :)
Pound cakes are great! I do like a blank page to work with and a pound cake does just that. Yours is lovely, thank you for sharing this recipe!
Oh how I LOVE pound cake. We can polish one off in a day at our house.
Ezra’s address is 821 Pou if anyone is interested. We always eat our poundcake with butter on it while it is hot. That’s the way my daddy liked it… hated icing.
That is one gorgeous cake! Now I’ll have to see if I pass Oprah’s test…
Love Pound Cake, and that picture has inspired me to crank up the oven.
Bundt cakes are just pretty…. except when they get stuck in the pan, which tends to happen to me all too often… Grrrr.
I don’t think I could/want to share this cake!
& there’s something on my blog for you
I LOVE poundcake as well- great pics; it looks like the texture of your cake is just perfect, and I love the glaze running down the sides!
I’ve never used potato starch in a cake before – do you know what it adds? Just curious. Cake looks gorgeous. And yes, I know who Ezra Pound is – some of us read books other than cookbooks now and then (or at least did in college….). :)
Not a pound cake tease. That is so funny!
It looks perfect, just the way pound cake should.
just wanted to say (again) how I love stopping by here. You always deliver a little chuckle that cheers me up (even when I’m sick and it sends me into a spasm of coughing–like today).
I will have to try your recipe soon with the cold oven technique. My go to pound cake is a coconut one with a lime glaze, but it doesn’t appeal to everyone. I might make yours for my daughter’s halloween carnival next week–CAKE WALK!
I love bundt cakes & yours is a winner! Very pretty indeed!! Loved the write-up too.
I wouldn’t have taken you for a pound cake tease, but now that you mention it…I’m glad you’ve posted your favorite pound cake!
I love pound cake. This looks wonderful! By the way…what is potatoe starch, and what part of the grocery store can you find it? Thanks for the great recipe!