1-2-3-4 Cake

From the home of Grammy passed down from MomMom
This was the very first cake I learned to make from “scratch”.  In fact, when I was growing up, I didn’t know you could bake a cake any other way!  I remember having it served up for breakfast broiled in the oven with butter on a cold winter morning.

Ingredients you will need to have on hand:
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup butter softened (2 sticks)
4 eggs (let the eggs sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking)
3 cups white unbleached flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream the butter and sugar together:  To “cream” you measure two cups of sugar into mixing bowl
    Add in softened one-cup of butter (this will be two sticks of butter)
    Turn the mixer onto high and let it “cream” the butter and sugar together for several minutes.
    Stop the mixer a couple of times to scrape the sides of the bowl.
    The more you cream these ingredients together, the fluffier the cake will be.
3. Break the eggs into a separate bowl.
4. Add in one egg at a time into the creamed sugar and butter.
5. Mix the egg in ONLY until it is mixed in – do NOT over-beat the mixture now

6. Measure all of your dry ingredients together:
    • Sift the flour into a separate bowl and measure out 3 cups
    • Measure 3 teaspoons of baking powder into the flour
    • Measure 1 teaspoon of salt into the flour
7. Measure your “liquid” ingredients together:
    • Measure 1 cup of milk into a “liquid measuring cup”
    • Measure 1 teaspoon of vanilla into the measured milk
8. Now you are ready to add the dry and liquid ingredients into your creamed mixture.
9. Start by adding in about one-half cup of the flour mixture
10. Pour in a little bit of the milk mixture into the batter
11. Turn on the mixer and mix until blended
12. Continue adding in the flour mixture and then the liquid mixture until it is all gone – ENDING WITH the flour mixture.
13. Mix together until you have a creamy batter – do NOT over mix!
14. Spray your “pound cake” pan with Pam
15. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan
16. Let the cake pan “drop” on the counter just a bit to break up any air bubbles. Give the cake pan a little turn as well and this will prepare the cake for baking eliminating all of the bubbles.
17. Bake in oven for 35 to 40 minutes until browned and toothpick comes clean.

TOOTHPICK TEST: To find out if your cake is thoroughly cooked, insert a wooden toothpick into the center of the cake.  If the toothpick comes out “clean” with no batter or crumbs on it – then the cake is done.
CAKE ‘DONENESS’ TEST:  If the cake pulls away slightly from the sides of the cake pan, it is usually done