Today is National Pound Cake Day! I love pound cake, don’t you? When I am nauseated, pound cake is the best internal settler I have found. Do you have a favorite kind of pound cake like me? My Nana’s (of course) was the very best – but a cold piece of Sara Lee will do just fine! I have a special trick that most people don’t know about – at least I don’t think they know about. I was snooping around in my Nana’s recipe book and I found her pound cake recipe – yay! I added a special ingredient to it to make it mine.
What is that special ingredient? Ah, yes – it is lemon curd from my friend Stacy’s blog Food Lust People Love. She calls it Quick Lemon Curd and she is not kidding because it was finished in no time at all!
It is Meyer lemon season – and I love Meyer lemons! I was able to purchase 12 lemons but it cost me $8 and that is a pretty steep price, don’t you think? I was determined to get every single angstrom of use out of those little yellow spheres of joy and with Mr. Picky Eater’s help, I did! Over the next few months, you will see several lemon recipes including this one from my Nana and Stacy with another from my Aunt Irene. I hope you love them all! Let’s get on with the recipe.
Nana’s Pound Cake
Ingredients:
½ Cup Shortening – like Crisco
1 Cup Butter, softened
3 Cups Sugar
6 large Eggs or 7 medium ones
3 Cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1 Cup of Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
1 Vanilla Bean, scraped – I added this, it was not in original recipe
Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 325F
Get your 12-cup Bundt pan or two 6-cup Bundt pans OR three 8.5×4.5 Loaf Pans.
Grease with extra shortening and sprinkle flour, shaking out the extra.
Put ½ cup shortening and butter into mixer and cream.
Add sugar mixing until light yellow and fluffy.
Then add eggs one at a time mixing until the yolk disappears.
Set the pans into the oven to begin heating up (this was Nana’s secret to a crisp outside and tender inside).
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Add a little at a time to the mixer alternating with the milk with mixer on LOW and only mixing until mostly incorporated between each addition.
Last, stir the vanilla by hand.
Pour into the pan(s) until 2/3 full or,
Fill ½ way full, put the lemon curd from Food Lust People Love around the middle in a ring then put in the rest of the batter carefully covering the curd.
Place in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Take the cans out and cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes then invert and allow to cool completely.
Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Whether you add the lemon curd or not – this is one great cake! Nana seldom put a glaze on her pound cake but when she did, she combined fresh squeezed lemon juice, powdered sugar and milk. She did not use a recipe so I don’t have one. It’s great without any glaze anyway. See how crispy that cake is? That’s why we heated the pan for about 5 minutes before putting in the batter.
For those of you wondering, I am not Jewish and none of my family is either. I found the pan, brand new at a yard sale for $1 and I loved the way the star would dictate how to cut it and it was really pretty – so I bought it. I also have a football stadium bundt pan and I’m not a football player either – I just have eclectic taste!
I am partying here this weekend! http://www.thecountrycook.net/2014/03/weekend-potluck-108.html
When I was growing up, Sara Lee pound cake was a staple in our house. We never had it with lemon curd but I LOVE lemon curd!
Did not know today is Nat’l Pound Cake DAy. Brilliant! Yours is gorgeous. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love funky bundt pans! Great idea with the lemon curd. I will check out that quick and easy recipe. One of the Food ‘n Flix posts last month added custard to a rhubarb bundt cake. I thought that was genius too. Makes me want to dig out our old family pound cake recipe. Thanks for posting this! (Pound cake really settles your stomach? Who knew.)
Yes, it really does!
Checked out the lemon curd link and I’m going to try this – I’ve never been happy with any of the curd recipes I’ve tried to date. Then, I’m going to make that wonderful pound cake.
Lillian
You will love them both Lillian!
Beautiful pound cake, Kelli, and I am loving that Bundt pan! That’s one I’ve never even seen. And you know what a Bundt fan I am.
Thanks for sharing my lemon curd link. I am so glad that you like it! My mom made pound cake from a similar recipe and always served it with lemon sauce so the lemon curd goes right along with that idea. I’ll have to post that sometime as my girls love it as well.
We LOVE your lemon curd at our house – Rocket has been taught by MPE to raise his are and say , Jerry – Jerry- Jerry ala Jerry Springer (he thinks it’s funny) and after he ate your curd he started saying, “sa-cee, sa-cee”. I thought it was hilariously cute but didn’t know how to use my phone well enough to video it. 🙂
Oh, my goodness! Was he really trying to say MY NAME? Sweet boy! He’s the biggest cutie pie for sure.
He was for sure! He’s a charmer that will probably be a regular heartbreaker when he grows up.
Yum!!!! Pound cake is one of my comfort foods. Adding lemon curd is a genius idea! Definitely going to have to try this one. BTW have I mentioned how much I like the look of your site these days. So clean and fresh.
Happy Wednesday,
Beth
Thanks Beth! I really appreciate that!
Pound cake is one of my favorite things, and adding lemon curd sounds amazing!!
Thank you!!
Mmm, who could say no to this delicious pound cake, it looks gorgeous 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
thank you CCU!
…MMM I love pound cake, comfort food for sure! Your cake looks delicious! 🙂 I love adding strawberries with my pound cake!
Love your site, found you by linking from another blog!
Michael
http://michaelswoodcraft.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/best-ever-strawberry-pie/
Thanks for dropping by! I love strawberries too – in fact, I just made a batch of my lemon strawberry marmalade which marries the two wonderful tastes! I will check out your strawberry pie!
Gotta love a classic!
I LOVE pound cake. I love a basic recipe and then adding all sorts of delicious combinations of ingredients. One of my favorites is lemon rosemary. Ahhhh, I want a slice now.
I will have to try it with rosemary next time – sounds interesting! thanks for dropping by!
This cake looks so tasty. A work of art…love all your fancy dancy pans too. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Weekend Potluck. (Did you realize the button doesn’t lead back to our party…or that we don’t use buttons any more?)
Please come back soon.
Really? I did my best work on that doggon button! I’ll have to get Holli to look at it – I’ll go put a link on it now – Yep, I knew you didn’t use the link. I would say it’s because I just learned to use it but it doesn’t look like I did! 🙂
Whew! Fixed it!!
Hi, I just came across your blog from another site. I Love your Secret Pound cake… Can’t wait to try it.
I added this to my Ziplist saver… Check them out. nice site that allows you to save the recipes on line.
I also wanted to share with you a recipe for a Glaze using Meyers Lemons, it’s very simple, Enjoy!
Combine 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted and 1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Pour over the top of the cake, covering completely. Let the glaze set for at least 15 minutes before serving. Thank you for posting and sharing your stories and recipes!
First – I am SO going to try out this glaze very soon! In fact, I’m making my Nana’s Banana Sour Cream Cake later this week and I think a lemon glaze is just what it needs to jazz it up! Second, I’m going to try out Ziplist Recipe Saver today. Thanks so much for dropping by and please come back anytime! I have a few more stories to tell and if you like old Nursery Rhymes – check out my Facebook Page (button’s on the right side of this post) I’m posting my old book page by page over there!!
Being Jewish, I am jealous of your cake pan!!!!