Day 32 - Pound Cake

          "And the Oscar goes to..."  I love watching the Academy Awards, seeing the stars in their gowns and tuxes and predicting who's taking home what award.  Now I have to rent those movies that I didn't even know were nominated, and the ones in which the various actors and actresses were nominated. 
     Next Sunday we're watching the All-Star episode of 'Chopped' on the Food Network.  Ok, it's a plug I'm not getting paid for, but I'm so excited about it, I can't keep it to myself.  They are going to have the judges be the actual chefs competing against one another.  This is something I've always wanted to see since the show started.  What would the judges do with the basket of mystery ingredients they are given?  I wonder who will be judging them?  I cannot wait!  Even my husband's excited for it which, if you know my husband, says quite a bit.   For him to be excited about a show that doesn't have men chasing after some type of ball or men dressed in striped shirts with whistles or guys running madly to get home is pretty amazing.  But he watches it every week with me.  It's actually the one show each week that we will not miss.  There's always been a show like that.  Back in the day, it used to be 'Hill Street Blues', then the reruns of 'St. Elsewhere', then 'Seinfeld', 'The Sopranos'.  You know what I mean.  That one show you sit and watch each week, and then you're disappointed when the episode is over because you know you have to wait another whole week until the next one.
     Tonight I made pound cake.  The recipe is from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook Thirteenth Edition, p. 571; author, Marion Cunningham; publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, division of Random House; ISBN 0-394-56788-9.

     Pound Cake  (makes a 9x5-inch loaf)
     ½ lb. butter
     1 2/3 cup sugar
     5 eggs
     2 cups cake flour
     ½ teaspoon salt
     1 teaspoon vanilla or ½ teaspoon mace

     Preheat oven to 325ºF.  Butter and lightly flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.  Cream the butter, slowly add the sugar, and beat until light. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each in well. 

Stir in the flour, salt, and vanilla or mace, and combine well. 

Spoon into the pan. 

Bake for 1¼ - 1½ hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack.  Serve very thin slices.

     Why would I want a thin slice?  I cut the end piece off just to give it a taste test and to make the next slice even for the picture I wanted to take (it's a good excuse, don't you think?).  After tasting, I decided I wanted a much bigger piece.  No thin slices for me, thank you very much.  I never used to cut thin slices when I'd buy the Sara Lee pound cake either.  Why start now?  And especially if it's homemade deliciousness.  Can I tell you, (well, I'm going to tell you anyway) that after eating that homemade pound cake, I will never, never buy another Sara Lee pound cake again.  They have unfortunately lost my business; it was that easy to make and that good!  Oh my goodness!  It was delicious plain, but it was also extremely delicious with the strawberries and whipped cream I put on it to make strawberry shortcake. 

And there's plenty of all of it left, so when everyone's at school tomorrow and my husband is at work, guess what I'll be eating?  Hee hee.   I didn't even use cake flour as it said and it was still to die for.  I can't imagine what if would taste like if I had used it.
     The rating for the Fannie Farmer pound cake recipe:  4 rolling pins!  This one's a winner!!  A great and easy dessert to serve to guests or just to eat yourself, like me, tomorrow.  Yeah, not really looking forward to that weigh-in this week.  Oh well, just a little more needed exercise to work it off.

     There he is watching me again.  He looks angry, but he squints whenever I use the flash.

Happy baking, everyone!