POUND CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350.
• Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 10-inch tube pan or a bundt pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Set aside.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
• Mix the milk together with the vanilla in another separate bowl.
• Add the flour mixture and milk mixture to the creamed butter/sugar alternating dry and wet. Start and end with dry. Do not overmix. Mix by hand, just enough to blend.
• Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until a sharp knife inserted all the way down comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a plate.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing. If desired, dust with sifted powdered sugar, or drizzel with a glaze made from powdered sugar and milk or water.
• Variations follow. The above is the plain poundcake recipe. Below is lemon poundcake, blueberry poundcake, or mocha-swirl poundcake.
• Lemon Poundcake: replace the vanilla above with lemon extract. Also add 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice and 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest.
• Blueberry poundcake: Make the Lemon Poundcake variation above and gently fold in 2 cups of fresh blueberries with the last addition of dry ingredients.
• Mocha-Swirl poundcake: Replace milk in the standard recipe with 1 cup strong black coffee. After mixing up the batter, take about 1/3 of the batter and add 1 oz of melted, unsweetened chocolate (1 square). Spread the plain batter into the pan. Spoon the chocolate batter on top in clumps and then use a knife to swirl the dark and light batters together.