Grandmamma Boyd’s Favorite Pound Cake

~ Meg

This is not my grandma’s recipe, but Steve’s. Her pound cake is the stuff of Boyd family legend. Her recipe was published in “A Cook’s Tour of Athens”, compiled by the Junior Assembly of Athens, Georgia, 1963. The “Cakes and Frostings” section of the cookbook is announced with a photograph of the “new Coliseum…with its massive, soaring concrete beams… a center for University [of Georgia] sports events…completely modern in design.” Because, Athens. (Go, Dawgs!) 

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GO DAWGS.

Here’s Grandmamma’s recipe, with my mods and notes in parentheses. And HERE is a Youtube video we recorded of me making it.

FAVORITE POUND CAKE

By Mrs. G. H. Boyd

  • 3 sticks Nucoa (a margarine precursor. We used 3 sticks of unsalted butter. I would not make this with margarine; Sorry, Grandmamma.)
  • 2 ½ cups sugar (white granulated)
  • 3 cups flour (Cousin Rosy uses cake flour; we used unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted)
  • 9 medium eggs (we used 9 large eggs because there were no “medium” eggs at the grocery store, though by volume, 8 probably would have worked fine)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon imitation butter flavoring (I was 50 years old when I learned that this is a thing, also called butter “extract”)

Bring all ingredients to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a stand mixer with regular beater attachment (not the wire whisk), cream butter and sugar together, adding sugar gradually; beat until light and fluffy (at least several minutes!).

Add alternately: 2 heaping Tablespoons (I used ¼ cup) flour, then 2 eggs, starting and ending with flour, mixing thoroughly between each addition. Add flavorings last. (note 1 below)

Pour into greased and floured tube pan (large) (note 2 below). Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to sit for several minutes, then turn out of pans onto wire racks and allow to cool.

NOTES:

  1. At Cousin Rosy’s suggestion, we cracked all the eggs into a bowl before starting the mixing part. And, we added the extracts to that. We did NOT mix this before adding during mixing – we just pushed two egg yolks into the bowl with whatever egg white went along with it.
  2. Steve only ever remembers this pound cake coming in loaf form, so we baked it in two regular-size loaf pans instead of a tube pan. This did not change the bake time.

Please share your thoughts!