Very Good Pound Cake

I love taking a recipe I find somewhere and making it better. Here's one from Martha Stewart's magazine "Everyday Food" that needed some improvement. It's important to have the ingredients at room temperature. The last time I made this it was a Monday morning  (my turn to bring dessert to the family dinner) and I used eggs I'd just gathered from the hen house. Country life is so good sometimes. Having to run through the pouring rain tonight to lock up the chickens in their hen house (so the bad guys can't get them ) is not so good, but I'll take not so good for those moments of good any time.

Very Good Pound Cake

1 cup of butter (2 sticks) at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, measured and then sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 eggs at room temperature.

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (or regular salt, make it a scant 1/2 teaspoon)

Per heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 4 1/2  inch x 8 1/2 in loaf pan. This is a smaller than standard pan, but works the best.

Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer set on medium high speed until very light and fluffy, about 7 minutes. I know that seems like a long time but you need to beat a lot of air into the butter and sugar mixture. Scrape down the bowl and beat one minute more. Beat in the vanilla and then each egg, one at a time, beating well between additions. At low speed add the salt, then slowly add the flour, beating well and scraping down the bowl as you go.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake about 60 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack for an hour. Remove form the pan and cool completely.

This time of year you could serve this with fresh red raspberries. I like to put a lemon sugar glaze on the top of the cake just to give it a little extra zip.  Zest a lemon and juice it. Whisk together 1 cup confectioner's sugar with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice and a teaspoon of the zest. Pour over the top of the cake and let it set to firm. Delicious.

The first time I made this cake it was too dry. It has no liquid other than the eggs so I increased the sugar from 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups and that did the trick. It's all just chemistry after all!