A long, long time ago, I was looking for the perfect Pound Cake: tender, dense but not heavy, moist but not gooey. I work-shopped it and found what I consider the best. It is from Lee Bailey’s Country Desserts, a beautiful cookbook, but this is maybe the only recipe I use regularly from it. It uses an awkward 2/3 cup sour cream so, of course, I buy a pint and triple the recipe! I use 8″x4″ loaf pans and it makes four loaves when tripled.
Mom
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 9″x5″ loaf pan.
Whip egg whites until stiff. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light. Combine sour cream, egg yolks and vanilla in a small bowl. Add half of sour cream mixture to butter and combine. Add half of flour, and 1/4 tsp baking soda and mix, followed by remaining sour cream mixture, and finally remaining flour. Stir to combine. Fold in egg whites by hand with a rubber spatula until fully incorporated.
Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake 1 hour 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Spencer Family Cookbook 