I have to say for the record that I am not usually tempted by pound cake. I can walk right by those giant slices of golden pound cake in the dessert case at our local diner without even batting an eye. Not even a twinge of longing for the pound cake. But there’s something between me and brown sugar that makes me long for things I don’t usually long for when brown sugar is part of the mix, and in this case, putting the words Brown Sugar with Pound Cake turned me into a pound cake lover. Or at least, a brown sugar pound cake lover, anyway!
I always thought pound cake got its name from having a pound of butter in it. Or maybe it was a pound of flour. A pound of something, anyway. But this pound cake has two sticks of butter instead of four, a reasonable amount of flour and the other usual suspects that go into cake batter…and brown sugar. It’s a quick mixture of the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and into a greased loaf pan it goes. An hour or so later…brown sugar pound cake!
Which I am here to tell you tastes perfectly wonderful sliced and eaten all by itself warm out of the oven. It is also scrumptious served with fresh berries. And served with ice cream and fresh berries. And served with whipped cream and ice cream and fresh berries.
In the interest of science, I am now going to see if it tastes okay when it is slathered with homemade peanut butter. You can’t ever be too careful. I will report back!
Brown Sugar Pound Cake
- 2 sticks of butter (1 cup), room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 4 eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
- Mix flour and baking powder in a medium bowl, stirring slowly with a whisk until well-blended.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes on high speed.
- Reduce speed to low and add eggs, one by one. Add vanilla.
- Add flour mixture slowly to butter mixture, mixing on low until no streaks of flour are visible.
- Scrape mixture into loaf pan. Bake for about an hour and ten minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on rack.
This pound cake is great on its own, but is even better with fresh fruit, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream!