Classic Pound Cake - by Martha Stewart
Martha was on her new program Martha Bakes on the Hallmark channel making this recipe this week, which I'm sharing with you viewers.
Enjoy a slice of this classic cake on its own or topped with berries and whipped cream.
Makes 2 loaves
* 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
* 4 cups sifted cake flour, plus more for pans
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 4 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 3/4 cups sugar
* 8 eggs, room temperature
* 1 cup milk, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two loaf pans and set aside.
2. Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder two times and set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add
the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and
vanilla. Stir only until thoroughly blended.
5. Pour batter into the
prepared pans and level tops with an offset spatula. Bake for about 1
1/2 hours, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the
pan about 10 minutes; then remove to a wire rack to cool thoroughly.
Classic Pound Cake - Martha Stewart Recipes
For more recipes like this please click here:
Review
Martha
Stewart's Baking Handbook presents the doyenne of the Better Way in
tip-top form. Or rather, it offers the work of a dedicated team who,
under Stewart's stewardship, has devised over 200 baking recipes for
both savory and sweet treats, ranging from the traditional likes of
buttermilk biscuits, gingersnaps, blueberry pie, bagels, and chocolate
angel food cake, to the more novel pleasures of Sausage and Feta Hand
Pies, Cherry Fragipane Gallete, Carrot-Ginger Cupcakes, and even the
buttery-sugary to-die-for yeasted pastry called kouign amans. Also
present and accounted-for are Stewartian showpieces like Mocha-Pistachio
Wedding Cake.
The greatest virtue of the book, apart from the
clarity of its recipes, lies in its organization: the chapters, which
cover all baking stops, begin with relevant tips, followed by notes on
equipment and techniques, all photo-illustrated. These set-ups supply
context that maximizes the possibility of pleasurable, goof-free baking.
Photo-illustrated how-to's in the formulas further the cause. A quibble
is the absence in many of the recipe headnotes of descriptive material
about the baked good they introduce--it's important to provide info on
techniques and ingredients, as the headnotes do, but baking recipes in
particular cry out for descriptions of what, for example, sfogliatelle
(an Italian pastry), or lime-glazed cookies are. This said, the book is
immensely appealing and will excite as well as instruct a wide range of
bakers, from the would-be to the accomplished. --Arthur Boehm
From Publishers Weekly
Six
years after Stewart's now classic Hors D'Oeuvres Handbook reinvented
canap?s, here is an end-of-the-meal sequel. General baking tips start
things off, most of which are beginner focused ("Read a recipe all the
way through"), along with an illustrated guide to baking equipment.
Along with expertise, Stewart is also selling the fantasy of wealth; she
keeps a vast collection of pots, pans and implements in her own pantry.
At times, readers may wish she would offer more suggestions of
substitutions for these tools and gadgets (for instance, nearly all the
recipes require a stand-up mixer). All the same, this work is, as
promised, an essential guide. The recipes include 42 different cookies
and 30 cakes, plus pies, tarts, coffee cakes, scones, biscuits, muffins,
crackers, bread, fine pastries and more. They range from Classic Apple
Pie to twists on standards, like a Tarte Tatin that involves cooking the
apples entirely in the oven (instead of on the stovetop) and
international goodies like Torta della Nonna. Instructions and sidebars
are exhaustive yet accessible. Naturally, the book is exquisitely
designed, with beautiful food styling and the spare, closeup photography
that's become a hallmark of Stewart publications. Additionally, Stewart
includes instructions for decorative crusts, coconut shavings and
pastry twists that make her creations look so appealing.
Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307236722?ie=UTF8&tag=wonderfulrota-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307236722