I Made Pound Cake

Strawberries were only $1 for a whole pound today, and they were good strawberries too! I suppose some people would go home with these strawberries and make a nice fruit salad, or eat them on top of some yogurt, or even plain. I made pound cake to eat with the strawberries. It balances out the salads we had for dinner tonight. I should note that I planned on making salads for dinner tonight after seeing the strawberries at the store and deciding that I would make pound cake to be their date for the evening.

Who better to turn to than Paula Deen? I mean, pound cake got its name from using a pound of butter after all, and why not go straight to the self-proclaimed expert on this one. Granted, it doesn't use a pound of butter, but there's plenty in the recipe to make up for that. Here's the thing, though. Its really light and (at the risk of sounding like a Food Network host) has a perfect crumb to it. And when you take it out of the oven and let it cool on the counter, it gets this crispy crust that you can peel off because you're going to invert it onto a plate anyway so no one will know the difference (well, now you do, but it still tastes great!).

P.S. Will we ever be able to make anything in a bundt pan without thinking of My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Buttermilk Pound Cake
From Paula Deen & Friends: Living it Up, Southern Style

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (otherwise known as Crisco - I can never keep "shortening" and "oleo" straight.)
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan (make sure to get the shortening/flour into all of the creases).

With a whisk, lightly mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy. Add tghe eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients and the milk mixture/buttermilk alternately to the butter and sugar, beginning and ending with the flour. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes, or until the cake is done. (The cake will slightly pull away from the sides of the pan when its ready, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.)  Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Invert onto a cake plate to serve.

Top with macerated strawberries. (Clean, hull, and slice strawberries; mix with some sugar and allow to sit until juices form. If needed, add more sugar to increase the amount of juice. Just be warned that the more sugar you add and the more juice it makes, the less firm the strawberries will become.)

Paula Deel says it serves 8. I'd go more with 10.