Cold Oven Pound Cake

I always feel a bit iffy about pound cakes. I find that more often than not they are too dense and dry for me which means they need a hefty serving of whipped cream or ice cream to get rid of that issue. Not that a little lot of whipped cream or ice cream is a bad thing, but I'm not really an ice cream and cake person. I know, I know, it's weird (especially considering how much I like the ice cream and cake song). I like them both individually so much that I just find together one messes with the other. Alas, I made blueberry pie ice cream and I decided to pair the ice cream with this pound cake.
Little did I know this was a disaster in the making. Turns out, I don't always take care of things as well as I should. Typical of a 20-year-old, right? Well,  on the way back home from college I guess I decided my tube pan doubled as storage space, so in went whatever various trinkets I had around my apartment. Until I put this pound cake in the oven I still thought this was a brilliant use of space.

It didn't take long before the burning smell started wafting through the house and I realized the pan's bottom had been bent significantly in the moving process. Whoops. Pound cake batter was everywhere. Another problem was that this is a cold oven pound cake so not only did I have to clean up all of this mess, I had to get the oven back cold before attempting again. On top of everything we only had one tube pan, so a Target trip had to be made. On the bright side, I wasn't making dessert last minute for once in my life and I had just enough time to repeat the pound cake process all over again. What a disaster.
In the end, this pound cake was even better than my great grandmother's recipe. It must be because it was passed along from another grandmother so it's got that loving touch that no one but a third or fourth generation seems to be able to master. Needless to say, it was worth the trouble. I think I'll try to bypass all the troubles next time anyways.

Cold Oven Pound Cake

Recipe from Bakespace: sunniebgi

• Ingredients

3 sticks (1.5 cups) butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs (Cold)
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 cup whole milk (VERY Cold)
1 teaspoon vanila extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

*eggs and milk should be cold right out of the refrigerator (not room temperature)

Directions
Prepare large tube pan by either spraying with bakers spray (and wiping gently with a paper towel to remove excess) or greasing with soft butter & dusting with flour.

Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Beat in flour, one cup at a time, alternating with milk.

Add vanilla extract and almond extract.

Beat on medium-high to high speed of hand mixer for two minutes, scrapping down sides of bowl.

Carefully pour batter evenly into tube pan – use all that is in the bowl (a rubber spatula will help).

Place on middle rack in COLD oven and bake at 275F. for 2 hours.

Check it towards the end in case your oven cooks fast or slow.

Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a cake rack on the counter for about four minutes.

Run a dinner knife around the middle and edges.

Turn cake out onto dinner plate and then upright onto a cake plate.

Let the cake cool before cutting – best to use a serrated knife, at least while cake is somewhat warm.

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