Buttermilk Pound Cake

I bought a quart of buttermilk to brine some chicken tenders in.  And had quite a bit leftover.  Mostly I use it when I make cornbread.  It's not something I keep on hand all of the time.  My Mom always kept buttermilk.   She made the famous Texas Sheet Cake at least a couple of times a month.  She didn't have to worry about her buttermilk wasting though.  My Dad actually liked buttermilk.  He would put saltine crackers in it or cornbread.  Ewww!  No thank you, I won't be trying that with my leftover buttermilk.  Buttermilk Pound Cake sounded like a way better option than drinking the stuff.  Now you may remember from a previous post, this is the famous cake that leaked all over my oven.  (Even The Best Cooks Have Bad Days...) The tragedy had nothing to do with the cake or the recipe itself.  My poor old pan, who is no longer referred to as "Old Faithful" because he let me down.  (Notice how I subliminally chose a Masculine pronoun to describe something that let me down?  Hmm...wonder what Oprah would say about that one.) Anyway, HE has been retired and I will be replacing him with a shiny new HER this week.  Regardless of the kitchen crisis, the remaining cake turned out beautifully.  It was moist and dense and very tasty.  Now that you know even The Devilish Dish isn't perfect, I encourage all of you to give this recipe a try.  Even if you bake half a cake in a different pan halfway through baking, you still get a great result.

The Buttermilk Pound Cake Line-Up

Cream together butter and sugar.

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk.

Combine baking powder with flour.

Add eggs to creamed mixture, 1 at a time.

Alternate adding flour and
buttermilk to creamed mixture.

Beginning and ending with flour.

Stir in vanilla and lemon extract
if you are using it.

Place batter in a greased pan. 
This pan is "dead to me"

Look what it did to my oven!

New pan to the rescue...
I managed to save the remaining batter!

It baked up beautifully. 
It just wasn't very tall because
there wasn't much batter left. 
Most of it met the bottom of the oven.

Golden and Buttery!

Perfect texture!  See? 
A delicious result amid a crisis!

Buttermilk Pound Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease a loaf or tube pan and set aside.  In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter.  Add eggs 1 at a time.  Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk.  Add baking powder to flour.  Alternate adding flour and buttermilk to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour.  Add vanilla and lemon extract.  Bake for about 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Prep Time:  Approximately 10 minutes     Cook Time:  Approximately 1 hour 25 minutes